Axios

President Trump's defense team released their arguments on Saturday for the impeachment trial in the Senate starting next week — and House Democrats quickly labeled the president's response as fundamentally wrong.

What they're saying: Trump's full response to House Democrat's case for impeachment argues the articles "violate the Constitution" and are "defective in their entirety." His defense further characterized the impeachment process as "nothing more than a dangerous attack on the American people themselves and their right to vote."

As Richmond braces for thousands of demonstrators on Monday, President Trump tweeted in support of pro-gun activists, saying the Second Amendment is "under very serious attack" in the state.

The state of play: Protesters are expected to pour onto state Capitol grounds in response to Virginia Democrats' sweeping gun control proposals. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam declared a state of emergency and temporarily banned weapons around the Capitol. The Virginia state Supreme Court upheld Northam's ban Friday, Reuters reports.

Billionaire presidential contender Mike Bloomberg received an extension through March 20 that allows him to keep details about his personal wealth confidential until after Americans vote in the 2020 Democratic primaries, The New York Times reports.

Why it matters: Billionaires have been a focal point so far in the 2020 election, and have been lamented by other candidates for using their vast wealth to buy the nomination.

Iowa and Nevada — two of the first three states to vote in the Democratic presidential race — plan to use new mobile apps to collect results from thousands of caucus sites, AP reports.

Why it matters: The technology is aimed at making it easier to count, but raises concerns of hacking or possible glitches.

If the 2020 presidential election is close enough to trigger a fight over the results, the public's confidence is so low in key people and institutions that no one is likely to be a trusted referee.

Why it matters: Given how tight the last few elections have been, the likelihood of a contested election is quite real — which means the danger of a fight over the results is real, too.

The dispute between Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren over whether he said a woman can't win may be the most explosive story of the Democratic primary so far — but it wasn't even the biggest story about Sanders on social media this week.

The big picture: A viral video from right-wing Project Veritas about a Sanders field organizer underscores how splintered the partisan digital universe is — and how difficult it is to get different slices of the electorate to pay attention to the same things.

The House Intelligence Committee released materials Friday provided by Lev Parnas, who investigators say acted as a "direct channel" between President Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani and individuals close to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Driving the news: The new materials detail conversations between Parnas and one of House Intelligence Ranking Member Devin Nunes' aides and highlight surveillance efforts against Marie Yovanovitch, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. Nunes was one of the top investigators in Trump's impeachment probe.

The seven House managers representing Democrats' case for the impeachment of President Trump will work through the weekend in their home districts refining their case, then will return to Washington on Sunday, where they will meet as a team at the Capitol, a Democratic aide working on the Senate trial told reporters Friday.

The bottom line: In their opening arguments this week, the managers will drive home their core message: That Trump undermined U.S. democracy by inviting a foreign government to interfere in U.S. elections on his behalf.

The Supreme Court will decide whether states can punish Electoral College members who do not support the winner of their state's popular vote, otherwise known as "faithless electors."

Why it matters: A group of faithless electors could upend an election, and states want to ensure that elections reflect their voters' will.

A new Washington Post-Ipsos poll finds that 83% of African Americans across the country believe President Trump is a racist and he's exacerbated the country's race problems while in office.

The big picture: African Americans are optimistic about their own personal lives, but are worried about their communities as a whole, the Post writes. Many said they hope to limit Trump's presidency to one term.

The Department of Justice appears to be investigating former FBI director James Comey for illegally leaking information to reporters years ago, The New York Times reports.

Why it matters: Investigations concerning news leaks often take place around the time the information appears in the media, and not years after the fact, per the Times. This investigation raises concerns it might be politically motivated.

A sneak peek for Axios readers at a passage from "A Very Stable Genius," by the WashPost's Phil Rucker and Carol Leonnig, out Tuesday:

The night of January 23 [2017], the first Monday of his presidency, Trump came face‑to‑face with House and Senate leaders from both parties at a White House reception ... At a long table in the State Dining Room, Steve Bannon ... could not stop looking at Nancy Pelosi...

Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg are considered the leading 2020 Democratic moderates, but even they have taken positions to the left of Barack Obama — illuminating the liberal drift of the entire party.

Why it matters: In earlier cycles, both men would have been labeled liberals based on their platforms and biographies. The fact that they're called centrists now in the media shows how much the Democratic Party has shifted in a polarized era — just as the Republican Party has been reinvented under President Trump.

Evelyn Yang, former L'Oréal marketing executive and wife of 2020 Democratic candidate Andrew Yang, divulged in an interview released Thursday that she was sexually assaulted by her obstetrician-gynecologist in 2012 while seven months pregnant, per CNN.

Background: Yang's former OB-GYN, whom she identified as Robert Hadden, pleaded guilty to a felony count of a criminal sexual act in the third degree in 2016, per the New York Times, after being accused by 19 patients of sexual abuse. Yang was one of the women to testify against Hadden, per her CNN interview.