Axios

Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) announced Monday that he's taking researcher Hatice Cengiz, the fiancée of slain Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, as his guest to this week's State of the Union.

Driving the news: It's an attempt to press President Trump to step up action against Saudi Arabia for its role in his death. A CIA report concluded in November 2018 that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered Khashoggi's killing. The prince denies doing so.

Juan Guaidó, Venezuela's embattled opposition leader, will attend Tuesday night's State of the Union address as part of an overseas tour designed to breathe new life into his push for power, Bloomberg first reported and Axios has confirmed from a Trump administration official.

Why it matters: Guaidó visited Europe and now the U.S. in defiance of a travel ban imposed by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s government. The U.S. recognized Guaidó as Venezuela’s rightful leader about 13 months ago, but his effort to dislodge Maduro has become increasingly desperate. 

Go deeper:

• What to expect from Trump's State of the Union address
• Venezuela's Guaidó seeks support from Europe in Davos address

President Trump plans to award conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh with the Presidential Medal of Freedom "as soon as next week," Politico reports.

Driving the news: Limbaugh, 69, announced on air Monday that he's been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer and is seeking treatment. As one of the country's most influential conservative radio hosts over the past two decades, he has featured Trump on his show several times.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) announced Tuesday that she will be among a group of at least nine Democrats who are boycotting President Trump's State of the Union address.

Why it matters: The decision to boycott the address after attending last year reflects the cognitive dissonance felt by some Democrats about granting Trump a state ceremony after having accused him of being a threat to the Constitution and national security.

It's hard to imagine a better opening for 2020 for President Trump and Mike Bloomberg than the ongoing chaos in the Hawkeye State.

The big picture: Trump's approval rating is at a historic high, Bloomberg is scaling up his campaign, and there's another caucus coming later this month — and they had planned on using that app!

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Me.) announced Tuesday that she will vote to acquit President Trump in his impeachment trial, despite believing that the president's actions toward Ukraine “demonstrated very poor judgment.”

Why it matters: The moderate senator was thought to be among the likeliest of the Republicans to vote to convict Trump. Her decision to acquit Trump means Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) is Democrats' last chance for a bipartisan conviction vote.

In the wake of Democrats' Iowa disaster, the Nevada Democratic Party has abandoned the problematic app — and Wyoming Democratic Party officials tell Axios they will conduct a thorough run-through with their own technology ahead of their caucuses.

Why it matters: The technological failure in Iowa caucuses is becoming another nail in the coffin of the caucus system, which nearly a dozen states have ditched and replaced with primaries since 2016.

An ethics watchdog has filed a Hatch Act complaint against Jared Kushner, saying the president's senior advisor advocated for the 2020 Trump campaign while appearing in his government capacity on CNN last Sunday.

The big picture: In the interview, Kushner discussed Trump's reelection efforts and weighed in on whether the impeachment proceedings have benefited the president politically. The Hatch Act restricts federal employees from engaging in partisan political activity.

The Iowa Democratic Party announced Tuesday that it plans to release "a majority" of its caucus results by 5pm ET, though it gave no indication when full results might be available.

The state of play: It blamed Monday night's caucus meltdown on an app "coding issue," but it made clear that it did not "impact the ability of precinct chairs to report data accurately."

Mike Bloomberg on Tuesday authorized his 2020 presidential campaign to capitalize on the uncertainty of the Iowa caucuses result by doubling television advertising spending and expanding staff in the field to 2,000 people, the New York Times reports.

Why it matters: Bloomberg is skipping the four early contests in February and hoping to make a national splash on Super Tuesday on March 3. By positioning himself as a moderate best suited to defeat Trump, the billionaire and former New York mayor would stand to benefit from no clear front-runner emerging from the early contests.

President Trump's style of politics thrives when chaos destabilizes institutions, and that's exactly what's happening now.

Why it matters: Trump's campaign is already arguing that Democrats can’t be trusted to lead if they can’t even get a couple hundred thousand counts done right, and none of the Democratic candidates campaigning today are boasting of an Iowa win.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said the alleged name of the Ukraine whistleblower on the Senate floor as senators debated President Trump's impeachment on Tuesday.

The state of play: Paul read aloud his question that named the alleged whistleblower — and had an accompanying poster that also included the name — which Chief Justice John Roberts refused to read during the impeachment trial last week.

Nevada's Democrats say their Feb. 22 caucus will not use the same vote-tallying app that's being blamed for the unprecedented delay reporting Monday's Iowa caucus results. CNN previously reported Nevada would.

Our thought bubble: When software introductions fail as badly as Iowa's just did, engineers typically "roll back" their system to its last previously functioning state. For Nevada's Democrats, that's likely to mean turning back the clock to the way they did it four years ago.

The Democratic Party's presidential caucuses in Iowa last night were a cascading debacle that touched on everything from poor tech training to overwhelmed phone lines to good old-fashioned human incompetence. Dan digs into what happened and what it means for the future of election tech with former White House tech policy adviser and New America fellow Hollie Russon Gilman.

Go deeper:

• The 2020 Iowa debacle
• Iowa Democrats rush "quality checks" after "inconsistencies"

President Trump's approval rating hit 49% in Gallup's tracking poll, his highest rating in that poll since taking office.

Why it matters: The president's approval reached its peak despite the fact that the poll was conducted from Jan. 16 to 29 — amid his ongoing impeachment trial in the Senate.

The Trump camp seized on Democrats' caucus meltdown in Iowa, using the lack of results and tech-driven chaos to sow uncertainty about the process in its aftermath.

Why it matters: The right is weaponizing the mess in an attempt to fire up its base and highlight Democrats' organizational failure, seizing on the botched caucus to argue that the left's top candidates can't be trusted to enact their promised sweeping structural reforms.

Ahead of the Iowa caucus on Monday, polling showed "about four in 10 ranked health care as the most important issue facing the country, while three in 10 identified climate change as the top," AP reports.

The state of play: That's one of the results from polling conducted for several days before the event for AP and Fox News by a University of Chicago research group.

Iowa Democrats reported Monday that their biggest priorities were beating President Trump and health care — but the meltdown of their election reporting systems left their presidential choices unresolved.

Why it matters: We've been writing for months that Democrats have a major choice ahead, either picking an advocate of Medicare for All — and siding with the plan that's less popular with the rest of the country — or a public option advocate.

President Trump will address the nation Tuesday night in the same room Democrats voted to impeach him less than two months ago, and a day before he is expected to be acquitted in the Senate.

Flashback: 21 years ago, former President Bill Clinton found himself in the same situation, addressing a country in the midst of a bitter impeachment battle. Clinton avoided using the I-word in his 78-minute speech, sticking with his commitment to focus on doing the work of a president, despite members' attempts to remove him from office.

Mike Bloomberg tells me he'd support Bernie Sanders over Donald Trump if those were his two options, but that people should understand Sanders at this moment is "so far to the left it's not practical" and that "what he wants to do would never get through Congress."

Why this matters: While Bloomberg's also seeking the Democratic nomination, he's committed to supporting whoever wins it.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden was endorsed by Caroline Kennedy, former U.S. ambassador to Japan and daughter of President John F. Kennedy, in a Boston Globe op-ed early Tuesday.

The big picture: The endorsement was a boost for the former vice president ahead of the New Hampshire Democratic primary elections and as the results of the Iowa caucuses were delayed while the state party conducted "quality checks."

Courtney Wild, who's spoken publicly of being molested by Jeffrey Epstein at age 14, will attend the State of the Union Tuesday as the guest of Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) a sponsor of a bill named for the survivor.

Why it matters: The Courtney Wild Crime Victims' Rights Reform Act of 2019 seeks to strengthen victims' rights and prevent prosecutors from reaching sweetheart plea deals like the 2008 one that saw Epstein avoid federal sex trafficking charges. Speier said Wild's presence will "send a clear message that women are done with being treated as second class citizens in our own country."

Go deeper: What we know: The life and death of Jeffrey Epstein

Democratic candidates had to improvise to keep supporters entertained Monday, as they took the stage to address the "quality checks" that delayed results in the Iowa Democratic caucuses past 11 pm local time.

What's happening: "Looks like it's going to be a long night, but I'm feeling good," said former Vice President Joe Biden when he took the stage in Des Moines. Speaking just before him, Sen. Amy Klobuchar urged supporters to "stay up. Let's stay in good spirits."

The conclusive results on the Iowa Democratic caucuses are coming in later than expected tonight, with the state party reporting the need to do "quality checks."

• Des Moines County Democratic Chair Tom Courtney is blaming election technology for the delay and calling a new caucus reporting app "a mess," AP reports.
• "The app is the issue and the hotline is smoked," volunteer Joe Galasso told NBC News.

Former Vice President Joe Biden's campaign is demanding answers from the Iowa Democratic Party over technology "quality control" issues that have delayed caucus results.

What they're saying: "[W]e believe that the campaigns deserve full explanations and relevant information regarding the methods of quality control you are employing, and an opportunity to respond, before any official results are released."

The Iowa Democratic Party was heard live on CNN hanging up on a precinct chair after an hour on hold to report an issue with a new caucus reporting app.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said in a speech on the Senate floor Monday that she "cannot vote to convict" President Trump, but condemned his actions toward Ukraine as "shameful and wrong."

Why it matters: The moderate senator was thought to be among the likeliest of the Republicans to vote to convict Trump. During her speech Monday, which followed the conclusion of closing arguments in the impeachment trial, Murkowski also tore into the House for rushing through the process and the Senate for what she called "rank partisanship."