Former Vice President Joe Biden released an attack ad on former Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg Saturday that disparaged Buttigieg for firing South Bend’s first black police chief, which Buttigieg claims he was pressured by federal prosecutors to do.
Driving the news: Democratic candidates held an extensive discussion on race in New Hampshire's debate on Friday. Buttigieg said he "took a lot of heat for discussing systemic racism" with his police department, and Biden said politicians should "stop taking the black community for granted."
Former President Obama has refrained from endorsing any of the Democratic primary candidates, but that hasn't stopped a slew of the 2020 contenders from invoking the president's image in their campaign ads, Politico reports.
Why it matters: “It’s the perfect visual validation. Voters can recognize Barack Obama in a nano-second,” Eric Jaye, Democratic political consultant told Politico. “Obama might as well be on Mt. Rushmore for Democrats. It’s so powerful and instantaneous.”
Florida has given little guidance to election officials after the state restored voting rights to an estimated 1.4 million former felons last year, resulting in "widespread confusion," the Wall Street Journal reports.
The big picture: Floridians have until Feb. 18 to register to vote for the presidential primary in the critical swing state. Felons in the state are required to pay outstanding court fees and fines before casting ballots, per a bill that went into effect last year.
The big headline out of Friday's jobs report "was that employers added 225,000 jobs in January, comfortably more than analysts had expected," N.Y. Times senior economics correspondent Neil Irwin writes.
The big picture: Positive underlying trends drove the unemployment rate up to 3.6% from 3.5%, while the share of adults working or looking for work rose to 63.4% — the highest since mid-2013, the Times writes.
Former Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg moved into a statistical tie with Sen. Bernie Sanders among likely Democratic primary voters in New Hampshire, in a Boston Globe/WBZ-TV/Suffolk University poll released Friday night.
By the numbers: Buttigieg is at 25% and Sanders polls at 24%. Meanwhile, Sen. Elizabeth Warren was at 14% and Joe Biden was only at 11%.The margin of erroris 4.4 points.
President Trump tweeted on Saturday morning to explain why he fired national security official Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who had testified before the House Intelligence Committee that the president's July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was "improper."
"I don't know [Vindman], never spoke to him or met him (I don't believe!) but, he was very insubordinate, reported contents of my 'perfect' calls incorrectly.......and was given a horrendous report by his superior, the man he reported to, who publicly stated that Vindman had problems with judgement, adhering to the chain of command and leaking information. In other words, 'OUT.'"
Michael Bloomberg’s prolific spending aims to make him as legitimate and familiar as his rivals. It also confronts two realities: President Trump is out-raising all the other Democrats with ease, and the Democratic National Committee is anemic.
Why it matters: Bloomberg is betting that enough exposure — through a $300m+ ad campaign and a non-traditional run that looks past the early four states — will make him competitive in Super Tuesday, and make all Democrats stronger in the general election.
The Justice Department has dropped its antitrust inquiry into four major automakers — Ford, VW, Honda and BMW — that struck a deal with California to boost emissions standards in defiance of White House plans to relax existing rules, the New York Times reported Friday and Axios later confirmed.
The big picture, via Axios' Amy Harder: This is a victory for California in a war against the Trump administration on multiple legal and policy fronts. Another one we're watching is how the administration's lawsuit against California's cornerstone climate policy shakes out.
The attacks grew more direct and the fault lines more defined Friday night at the eighth Democratic debate, as candidates looked to either capitalize on their Iowa momentum or stop the bleeding four days before New Hampshire primary.
Why it matters: Pete Buttigieg has the chance to make a huge statement if he can pull off a victory in New Hampshire, a state that his fellow Iowa frontrunner Bernie Sanders won in a landslide in 2016. Joe Biden, meanwhile, seemed ready to concede at the outset of the debate: "I took a hit in Iowa, and I’ll probably take one here."
The biggest story heading into New Hampshire is Pete Buttigieg's meteoric rise, which has the potential to shift the dynamics of the primary field and is rattling his rivals to his left and right.
The state of play: Following his strong showing in Iowa, Buttigieg jumped 12 percentage points in a New Hampshire poll between Monday (the day of the Iowa caucus) and Thursday, and his opponents are saying his name more regularly in their stump speeches throughout the state.
Entrepreneur Andrew Yang during Friday night's Democratic debate shared his take on why many of America's children are still living below the poverty level.
What Yang is saying: "The mission in this campaign has to be for us to disentangle economic value and human value, say they are not the same things. And make the case to each of our fellow Americans we have intrinsic value as citizens, human beings and shareholders of the richest country in the world."
Seven 2020 candidates took the stage at St. Anselm College in Manchester, N.H., on Friday, to debate issues including race, health care, the economy, Ukraine and electability, as they jockey for voters' support days before the nation's first primary on Feb. 11.
Why it matters: After the turmoil and error-riddled results of the Iowa caucuses, Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Mayor Pete Buttigieg are trying to edge ahead of each other, while other candidates are hoping for breakthrough moments to gain voters' support.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren firmly stated during the Democratic debate on Friday night that the United States cannot rely on the Supreme Court to protect abortion rights.
"I've lived in an America in which abortion was illegal. Rich women still got abortions, and that's what we have to remember about this. States are heading toward trying to ban abortion outright."
Sen. Bernie Sanders and Mayor Pete Buttigieg both stated they would have handled the drone strike on Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani differently than President Trump.
The big picture: Trump is likely to parade the killing of Soleimani as one of his signature national security accomplishments in the 2020 campaign. ABC News' David Muir pointed out previous administrations knew of Soleimani's threat but never ordered a strike.
Former Vice President Joe Biden criticized President Trump for firing former National Security Council adviser Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who testified against Trump during the House impeachment investigation, and giving conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh the nation's highest civilian honor during Tuesday's State of the Union.
What Biden is saying: "Lieutenant Colonel Vindman got kicked out of the White House today. He should be pinning a medal on Vindman and not rush Limbaugh. I think we should all stand now and give Col. Vindman a show of support. Get up there...That's who we are. We are not what Trump is."
Sen. Amy Klobuchar went after Mayor Pete Buttigieg, one the top contenders at the Iowa caucuses, during Friday's Democratic debate when he tried to criticize the other candidates for having Washington establishment experience.
What Klobuchar is saying: Klobuchar focused on the difficult choices Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and Doug Jones (D-Al.) made during President Trump's impeachment proceedings. She closed by saying "I think having some experience is a good thing."
Former Vice President Joe Biden opened the Democratic debate on Friday night by reiterating that while Sen. Sanders (I-Vt.) and Mayor Pete Buttigieg came out on top in the Iowa caucus, they will face problems down the 2020 road.
Thought bubble... Per Axios' Alayna Treene: Biden is playing straight to voters biggest concern with his answer to the first question: Which candidate can best take on Trump on the debate stage and beat him in the general election? Biden says Trump will label Sanders as a socialist, and given the fact that he is one, Republicans will eat him alive
EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland, a stand-out witness in the impeachment trial of President Trump, was fired on Friday, according to a statement provided to Axios.
Driving the news: Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a key national security official who testified that Trump's July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was "improper," was "escorted" from the White House on Friday, according to his lawyer.
