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Trump Bashes Bloomberg; Dem’s Campaign Calls Trump a ‘Liar’

While much of the political world focused on Iowa and its caucuses Monday that kick off the election season, President Donald Trump has his mind on a Democratic candidate who’s skipping the early-voting state.Trump used a Super Bowl pregame interview with Fox New Channel’s Sean Hannity to make a false claim about Michael Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor who has been blanketing the airwaves with anti-Trump ads. The Republican president and Bloomberg are running dueling, multi-million dollar ads during Sunday night’s game, the biggest sports event of the year.Trump accused Bloomberg, who is 5 feet, 8 inches tall, of making a special request for a box to stand on if he qualifies for future presidential debates.
“Why he should he get a box to stand on?” Trump asked, according to an excerpt released by Fox. “Why should he be entitled to that, really? Then does that mean everyone else gets a box?”
Trump is “lying,” Bloomberg campaign spokeswoman Julie Wood said.
“He is a pathological liar who lies about everything: his fake hair, his obesity, and his spray-on tan,” she said.
The full interview was scheduled to air Sunday afternoon.
Trump had already fired off a series of early Sunday anti-Bloomberg tweets, calling the billionaire “part of the Fake News” and insisting he “is going nowhere” and “just wasting his money,” despite rising in the polls.
Bloomberg responded with his own aside: “Looks like our ads are keeping you up at night. We’ve got one in particular you should watch today.” Bloomberg’s 60-second spot will focus on the impact of gun violence.
Trump was spending his weekend in Palm Beach, Florida, where he has been golfing and mingling with guests at his dues-paying Mar-a-Lago club. On Saturday night, he made an appearance at an event there hosted by the “Trumpettes” fan club.
 “We just had our best poll numbers that we’ve ever had,” Trump said in his remarks, according to video posted on social media. He also praised singer Lee Greenwood, whose song “Proud to be an American” is played every time Trump takes the stage at his rallies. Also in attendance, per photographs, were actor Stephen Baldwin and Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr.
The president was expected to host his annual Super Bowl watch party in Florida before returning to Washington late Sunday.
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State of the Union Address, Final Impeachment Votes on Agenda This Week

Senators will hear closing arguments Monday in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, a day before he delivers his State of the Union address from the U.S. Capitol. Wednesday, senators cast their final votes in what is widely expected to be the president’s acquittal on charges that he abused the power of the presidency and obstructed Congress’ efforts to investigate his actions.  VOA’s Arash Arabasadi looks at the week ahead in Washington.
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Emails Show Fallout From Trump’s Claims About Dorian 

A flurry of newly released emails from scientists and top officials at the federal agency responsible for weather forecasting clearly illustrates the consternation and outright alarm caused by President Donald Trump’s false claim that Hurricane Dorian could hit Alabama. A top National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration official even called the president’s behavior “crazy.” What the scientists and officials found even more troubling was a statement later issued by an unnamed NOAA spokesman that supported Trump’s claim and repudiated the agency’s own forecasters. The emails, released late Friday in response to Freedom of Information Act requests from The Associated Press and others, give an inside picture of the scramble to respond to the president and the turmoil it caused inside the federal agency. ‘Flabbergasted'”What’s next? Climate science is a hoax?” Craig McLean, NOAA’s acting chief scientist, wrote in an email sent to the agency’s top officials. “Flabbergasted to leave our forecasters hanging in the political wind.” In a more formal letter, McLean wrote that what concerned him most was that the Trump administration “is eroding the public trust in NOAA for an apparent political recovery from an ill-timed and imprecise comment from the president.” As Dorian headed for the southeastern U.S. in early September, Trump tweeted that Alabama was “most likely to be hit (much) harder than anticipated.” The National Weather Service in Birmingham corrected him, tweeting that “Alabama will NOT see any impacts from #Dorian.” But Trump remained adamant, and NOAA came to his defense with the unsigned statement, which claimed some data provided to the president had indicated that Alabama could be hit by the hurricane and scolded the Birmingham office. The statement was issued after the White House and Commerce Department intervened, the AP and others reported at the time. Irate notesIt provoked angry emails from within the agency and from the public. Gary Shigenaka, a NOAA scientist, wrote to the agency’s acting administrator, Neil Jacobs, asking him to “reassure those of us who serve the public … that we are not mere pawns in an absurd game.” In response, Jacobs defended the forecasters and said, “You have no idea how hard I’m fighting to keep politics out of science.” The whole incident is perhaps best remembered for what became known as Sharpie-gate. In defending himself in the Oval Office, Trump displayed an NOAA map that was altered using a black marker to extend the hurricane’s projected path. “Apparently the president is convinced that Alabama was in the path of Dorian and someone altered a NOAA map (with a sharpie) to convince folks,” NOAA official Makeda Okolo wrote in an email to chief operating officer Benjamin Friedman and others. Friedman replied: “Yep, crazy.” 
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Iowa Democrats Prep for Caucuses

Madison County, Iowa, gained nationwide attention because of its many bridges that inspired a novel and movie but in real life its politics now dominating that region as voters there prepare for the first in the nation presidential caucus which begins the process for Democrats to pick a nominee to go up against President Donald Trump in the November general election. Kevin Enochs narrates this report from VOA’s Suli Yi
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Delaney, Longest-Running Democratic Candidate, Ends 2020 Bid

John Delaney, the longest-running Democratic candidate in the 2020 presidential race, is ending his campaign after pouring millions of his own money into an effort that failed to resonate with voters.
    
The announcement, made Friday morning, further winnowed down a primary field that had once stood at more than two dozen.
    
“At this moment in time, this is not the purpose God has for me,” Delaney said, in an interview with CNN. “We’ve clearly shaped the debate in a very positive way.”
    
The former Maryland congressman has been running for president since July 2017, though Delaney’s early start did little to give him an advantage in the race or raise his name recognition with Democratic primary voters.
    
In a field dominated by well-known candidates from the liberal wing of the party, Delaney, 56, called for a moderate approach with “real solutions, not impossible promises” and dubbed the progressive goal of”`Medicare for All” to be “political suicide.”
    
Delaney last appeared on the Democratic debate stage in July 2019 but continued to campaign even as his presidential effort largely failed to gain traction. Delaney joins other candidates like Montana Gov. Steve Bullock and former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper who unsuccessfully tried to woo moderate voters before ending their respective campaigns.
    
Campaign finance reports showed Delaney’s campaign was more than $10 million in debt largely because of loans Delaney made to his campaign. At the end of September, months after he had last been on a debate stage, the former lawmaker had just over $548,000 in cash on hand.
    
Before billionaires Tom Steyer and Michael Bloomberg entered the presidential race and used their substantial wealth to gain attention, Delaney tried a similar approach. Back in March, he promised to donate $2 to charity for every new donor who donated on his website. Then in October, Delaney dangled “two club-leve” World Series tickets, with hotel and airfare included, as a prize for those that donated to his campaign.
    
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts were frequent targets of Delaney as he warned during the July debate that the “free everything” policy approach would alienate independents and ensure President Donald Trump’s reelection. He compared the two senators to failed Democratic standard-bearers of the past, including George McGovern, Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis.
    
Delaney renewed that criticism on his way out of the race, saying the true hope for the party lay in moderates like former Vice President Joe Biden and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar.
    
“People like Bernie Sanders who are running on throwing the whole U.S. economy out the window and starting from scratch.I just think that makes our job so much harder, in terms of beating Trump,” Delaney said Friday morning. “I also think that’s not real governing. That’s not responsible leadership because those things aren’t going to happen.”
    
Despite the criticisms, Delaney pledged to “campaign incredibly hard”  for whoever won the Democratic nomination.
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Trump Impeachment Trial Nears End as Senate Debates New Witness Testimony

The U.S. Senate is set to vote Friday on whether to allow new testimony and documents in President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial as reports of new revelations surface from Trump’s former national security adviser, John Bolton.The Republican-majority Senate is widely anticipated to acquit Trump after rejecting Democratic calls for new evidence.  The precise timetable for final action was unclear as the Senate began four hours of debate between House managers and Trump’s lawyers over whether to call witnesses, including Bolton.
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 New Bolton revelation  The New York Times reported Friday that a manuscript of Bolton’s unpublished book says that Trump directed him to participate in the Republican president’s pressure campaign to get Ukrainian officials to obtain harmful information on Democrats, including former Vice President Joe Biden and Biden’s son, Hunter. Bolton’s manuscript reportedly says Trump issued the directive during an Oval Office discussion that included acting White House chief-of-staff Mick Mulvaney, Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and White House counsel Pat Cipollone — who is participating in the impeachment trial.Bolton wrote that the White House conversation occurred in early May, more than two months before Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to publicly announce an investigation of Biden, a political rival Trump could potentially face in the 2020 presidential election.FILE PHOTO: National Security Advisor John Bolton.Trump’s alleged directive to Bolton was previously undisclosed and would be the earliest known example of Trump trying to use the presidency for political and personal gain.Democrats are calling for new documents and witnesses, including Bolton, who has agreed to testify if he is subpoenaed.“Yet another reason why we ought to hear from witnesses just as we predicted,” said Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff, the lead House prosecutor. “And it didn’t require any great act of clairvoyance. The facts will come out. They will continue to come out. And the question before you today is whether they will come out in time for you to make a complete and informed judgment as to the guilt or innocence of the president.”What will Republicans decide? 
Prospects for Democrats to enlist the support of at least four Republicans to call witnesses before a final vote on removal or acquittal of Trump dimmed considerably over the past 24 hours. Republican Senator Lamar Alexander said Thursday there is no need to call witnesses to testify in the impeachment trial because Democrats have already proven Trump’s actions are “inappropriate” but not impeachable. U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander speaks to reporters as he exits the Trump impeachment trial in Washington, U.S., January 30, 2020.Alexander said in a statement late Thursday, “There is no need for more evidence to prove something that has already been proven and that does not meet the United States Constitution’s high bar for an impeachable offense . . .The Constitution does not give the Senate the power to remove the president from office and ban him from this year’s ballot simply for actions that are inappropriate.”Another Republican who was thought likely to vote for witnesses announced before the start of Friday’s crucial session that she also saw no need to call witnesses.”I don’t believe the continuation of this process will change anything,” Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski said in a statement, adding, “It is sad for me to admit that, as an institution, the Congress has failed.”Accusations against Trump
Trump is accused of pressuring Zelenskiy during a July 25 call to open a corruption investigation into Biden and his son, as well as unfounded allegations that Ukraine had meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign to try to help Democrat Hillary Clinton defeat Trump.  The president allegedly withheld $391 million in military aid to Ukraine unless Zelenskiy publicly announced a probe. No evidence against the Bidens has ever surfaced. The U.S. assistance for Ukraine was formally frozen on July 25 under a legal provision known as an apportionment.Democrats said reaching out to a foreign power to interfere in an election is an impeachable offense. Numerous Republicans disagree.The House of Representatives impeached Trump in December, accusing him of abusing the office of the presidency and obstructing congressional efforts to investigate his actions related to Ukraine. Trump has denied any wrongdoing and has charged Democrats with leveraging the impeachment process to overturn his 2016 electoral vote victory.Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, walks with reporters as in the basement of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 30, 2020.Votes needed to approve witnesses
Four Republican senators would need to join 47 Democrats and independents in the 100-member Senate to allow witness testimony and additional documents in Trump’s impeachment trial.  Only two Republicans – Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Mitt Romney of Utah – are currently believed to favor calling any witnesses. After the vote on whether to allow new evidence, the Senate will then deliberate before voting on whether to move forward to the final vote. The trial could continue into next week due to scheduling issues stemming from the Iowa caucuses on Monday and the president’s State of the Union address on Tuesday.Trump is only the third U.S. president to be impeached and tried before the Senate. Andrew Johnson was impeached in 1868 because of a post-Civil War dispute over states that seceded from the union. Bill Clinton was impeached in 1998 for lying to a grand jury over a sex scandal. Both Johnson and Clinton were acquitted and remained in office until the end of their terms.
 
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Pompeo Pledges Ongoing Support for Ukraine During Kyiv Visit

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo vowed Friday that the Trump administration would not waver in its support for Ukraine and denied charges at the heart of President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial.
Pompeo met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday and denied allegations that vital military aid and a White House visit were conditioned on a probe into former Vice President Joe Biden’s family.
“It’s just simply not the case. We will find the right time, we will find the appropriate opportunity (for the visit),” Pompeo said at a press conference after a meeting with Zelenskiy.
Pompeo is the highest-ranking American official to visit Ukraine since the impeachment process began last year. That process started with revelations about a July 25 phone call between Zelenskiy and Trump.
Zelenskiy said the impeachment had not had a negative effect on U.S.-Ukraine relations and thanked the Trump administration for its financial and military support that impeachment prosecutors say the president withheld in order to extract a personal favor from Ukraine.
Pompeo’s meetings in Kyiv come as t he GOP-majority Senate prepared to vote  on whether to hear witnesses who could shed further light on Trump’s actions toward Ukraine. The vote appeared likely to fail, however, as a key Republican said he would vote against allowing new testimony, boosting odds the Senate will vote to acquit in a matter of days.
A senior U.S. official in the meeting said Pompeo and Zelenskiy mainly discussed investment and infrastructure and that there was no talk of impeachment or corruption investigations. The official was not authorized to publicly discuss the private conversation and spoke on condition of anonymity.
At a press conference after the meeting, Pompeo assured Zelenskiy of Washington’s unwavering support.
“The United States understands that Ukraine is an important country. It’s not just the geographic heart of Europe, it’s a bulwark between freedom and authoritarianism in eastern Europe. It’s fields feed the European continent and its pipelines keep Europe warm in the winter,” he said.
Zelenskiy, in turn, expressed hope that the U.S. would more actively participate in resolving a separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine that has killed more than 14,000 people in the past five years. Zelenskiy also said he still wanted to meet Trump in DC as long it would be productive. “I am ready to go tomorrow,” he said.
In addition to Zelenskiy, Pompeo is meeting Ukraine’s prime, foreign and defense ministers as well as civic leaders, and touring several Ukrainian Orthodox churches.
Trump is accused of obstructing Congress and abuse of office for withholding a White House meeting with Zelenskiy and critical military aid to the country in exchange for an investigation into Biden, a political rival, and his son, Hunter.
Ukraine has been an unwilling star in the impeachment proceedings, eager for good relations with Trump as it depends heavily on U.S. support to defend itself from Russian-backed separatists. Trump, who has still not granted Zelenskiy the White House meeting he craves, has offered that support to some degree. Although the military assistance was put on hold, it was eventually released after a whistleblower complaint brought the July 25 call to light. The Trump administration has also supplied Ukraine with lethal defense equipment, including Javelin anti-tank weapons.
Pompeo has stressed the importance of the U.S.-Ukraine relationship, a sentiment long shared by Republicans and Democrats who see the former Soviet republic as a bulwark against Russian ambitions. But it’s a view that now has partisan overtones, with Democrats arguing that withholding aid from such a critical ally for political purposes is an impeachable offense.
The Senate is to vote on hearing impeachment witnesses later Friday. Democrats want to hear from former national security adviser John Bolton, whose forthcoming book reportedly says that Trump withheld the aid in exchange for a public pledge of a probe into the Bidens. That would back witnesses who testified before the House impeachment inquiry.
Ukraine has been a delicate subject for Pompeo, who last weekend  lashed out at a National Public Radio reporter for asking why he has not publicly defended the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch. She was removed from her post after unsubstantiated allegations were made against her by Trump’s personal attorney, Rudolph Giuliani.
Pompeo has been criticized for not publicly supporting Yovanovitch, her now-departed successor as chief of the Kyiv embassy, William Taylor, and other diplomats who testified before House impeachment investigators. Yovanovitch and Taylor have been attacked by Trump supporters and, in some cases, have been accused of disloyalty.
In the NPR interview, Pompeo took umbrage when asked if he owed Yovanovitch an apology, and maintained that he had defended all of his employees. In an angry encounter after the interview, he also questioned if Americans actually cared about Ukraine, according to NPR.
That comment prompted Taylor and Pompeo’s former special envoy for Ukraine, Kurt Volker, who also testified to the impeachment panel, to write opinion pieces discussing the importance of the country to U.S. national security and why Pompeo should be explaining its role to Americans as their top diplomat.
Pompeo brushed aside his reported comment, telling reporters aboard his plane that “of course, the American people care about the people of Ukraine” and said his message to American diplomats in Ukraine would be the same he gives to those at other embassies.
“The message is very similar to every embassy that I get a chance to talk to when I travel,” he said. “I almost always meet with the team and tell them how much we love them, appreciate them, appreciate their family members and their sacrifice.”
He said he would “talk about the important work that the United States and Ukraine will continue to do together to fight corruption inside of that country and to ensure that America provides the support that the Ukrainian people need to ensure that they have a free and independent nation.”
Pompeo twice postponed earlier planned trips to Ukraine, most recently in early January when developments with Iran forced him to cancel. Pompeo said he plans to discuss the issue of corruption but demurred when asked if he would specifically raise the Bidens or the energy company Burisma, for which Hunter Biden worked.
“I don’t want to talk about particular individuals. It’s not worth it,” he told reporters. “It’s a long list in Ukraine of corrupt individuals and a long history there. And President Zelenskiy has told us he’s committed to it. The actions he’s taken so far demonstrate that, and I look forward to having a conversation about that with him as well.”
Pompeo traveled to Kyiv  from London, which was the first stop on a trip to Europe and Central Asia that will also take him to Belarus, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. 
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Charities Steered $65M to Trump Lawyer Sekulow and Family

Jay Sekulow, one of President Donald Trump’s lead attorneys during the impeachment trial, is being paid for his legal work through a rented $80-a-month mailbox a block away from the White House.The Pennsylvania Avenue box appears to be the sole physical location of the Constitutional Litigation and Advocacy Group, a for-profit corporation co-owned by Sekulow. The firm has no website and is not listed in national legal directories. The District of Columbia Bar has no record of it, and no attorneys list it as their employer.
But Sekulow, 63, is registered as chief counsel at the American Center for Law and Justice, a non-profit Christian legal advocacy group based in an expansive Capitol Hill row house a short walk from the Senate chamber.
A half dozen lawyers employed by the non-profit ACLJ are named in recent Senate legal briefs as members of Trump’s defense team – including one of Sekulow’s sons. The ACLJ, as a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization, is barred under IRS rules from engaging in partisan political activities.
The Republican National Committee has paid more than $250,000 to Sekulow’s for-profit CLA Group since 2017, when he was first named to Trump’s legal team as special counsel Robert Mueller was leading the Russia investigation, according to campaign disclosures.
Sekulow has been one of Trump’s most visible defenders, enduring as a trusted attorney for the president even as other of his lawyers have been sidelined or entangled in controversy.
In the impeachment trial, he has sought to present Trump as unfairly hounded by investigations, seizing on surveillance errors the FBI acknowledged making in the Russia probe and accusing Democrats of investigating the president over Ukraine simply because they couldn’t bring him down after the Mueller investigation.
Charity watchdogs for years have raised concerns about the blurred lines between for-profit businesses tied to Sekulow and the complex web of non-profit entities he and his family control.
The Associated Press reviewed 10 years of tax returns for the ACLJ and other charities tied to Sekulow, which are released to the public under federal law. The records from 2008 to 2017, the most recent year available, show that more than $65 million in charitable funds were paid to Sekulow, his wife, his sons, his brother, his sister-in-law, his nephew and corporations they own.
Daniel Borochoff, president of the American Institute of Philanthropy, said Sekulow appears to be mixing his defense of Trump with his charitable endeavors. The group has issued a “Donor Alert” about ACLJ on its CharityWatch website.
“Charities are not supposed to be taking sides in partisan political activities, such as providing legal services to benefit a politician in an impeachment trial,” Borochoff said. “Regulators should investigate whether or not charitable resources, such as office, labor, equipment, etc., are being wrongly utilized to benefit Sekulow’s for-profit law firm.”
The address for CLA Group listed in recent court filings matches Carr Workplaces, a flex-space provider that rents out mini offices, individual desks and conference rooms for periods as brief as one hour. According to its website, the company also offers its customers “virtual offices” that include a mailbox and mail forwarding.
A receptionist at the Carr Workplaces office confirmed the law firm’s mail is delivered to a mail slot in a secure room before being forwarded to another location, which she declined to disclose.
A call to Carr last week asking to be connected to CLA Group was forwarded. After a few rings, the call was answered by a receptionist at the non-profit ACLJ.
Inquiries about Sekulow’s for-profit law firm were referred to Gene Kapp, a Virginia public relations contractor paid through the charity.
“Jay Sekulow is serving as a member of the President’s legal team in his personal capacity,” Kapp said in an email. “His work with the President is separate and distinct and is not connected with his work as Chief Counsel of the ACLJ. The ACLJ’s work is separate and distinct from the legal work being done for the President.”
Kapp declined to say whether CLA Group has any support staff or whether Sekulow was doing his legal work for Trump in the non-profit group’s office. Kapp would also not comment on whether CLA Group was reimbursing ACLJ for any resources being utilized for Trump’s legal defense.
A 2005 investigation by the publication Legal Times reported about questionable spending at ACLJ, quoting former employees describing millions in charity funds being spent to support the Sekulows’ lavish lifestyle, which included multiple homes, golf junkets, chauffeur-driven cars and a private jet used to ferry then-Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. The Guardian and The Washington Post reported additional details in 2017, shortly after Sekulow was named as Trump’s lawyer.
Over the 10-year-period examined by AP, the tax returns show nearly $37 million in charitable funds were paid by ACLJ to the CLA Group, the phantom law firm listed on court filings as defending Trump.
Incorporation filings and tax records show Sekulow co-owns CLA Group with his law school classmate and longtime business partner Stuart J. Roth. Roth is also listed as senior counsel at ACLJ and named in recent legal briefs as one of Trump’s defense lawyers.
North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, a Democrat, is investigating the potential abuse of charitable funds raised by the organizations tied to Sekulow. Spokeswoman Laura Brewer said it was unclear when that probe, begun in 2017, would be complete.
Trump, Sekulow’s star client, has faced similar legal questions. Trump agreed to pay $2 million as part of a settlement with the state of New York in which he was forced to admit he misused charitable funds from the Donald J. Trump Foundation to promote his 2016 presidential campaign, pay off business debts and buy a $10,000 portrait of himself hung at one of his Florida resorts. Trump’s charity also cut an illegal $25,000 check to support the reelection of then-Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who now works with Sekulow as a member of the president’s defense team.
A Brooklyn native, Sekulow graduated from Mercer Law School in Georgia and briefly worked for the Internal Revenue Service before going into private practice in Atlanta with his former classmate Roth in the early 1980s. The pair specialized in buying and selling historic properties as tax shelters, but the business collapsed after disgruntled investors sued them over alleged fraud and securities violations. Court records show both Sekulow and Roth filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 1987.
Sekulow quickly remade himself as general counsel for the group Jews for Jesus. A self-described Messianic Jew, Sekulow won a religious liberties case before the U.S. Supreme Court after members of the group were barred from passing out pamphlets at the Los Angeles International Airport.
The following year, records show Sekulow founded the non-profit Christian Advocates Serving Evangelism (CASE), a charity “dedicated to the ideal that religious freedom and freedom of speech are inalienable, god given rights.”
In 1992, he was named chief counsel at the ACLJ, which was founded by televangelist Pat Robertson as a conservative counterweight to the left-leaning American Civil Liberties Union. It is affiliated with the law school at Regent University, the Christian college founded by Robertson and located next to the studios of his Christian Broadcasting Network in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
Tax records show ACLJ now receives the bulk of its $23 million annual budget from CASE. All six of the charity’s paid board members share the last name Sekulow, including Jay’s wife, Pam, and their sons, Jordon and Logan.
That tight-knit family control runs afoul of standards issued by multiple watchdog groups to help stem the likelihood of self-dealing and graft.
The Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance recommends at least five independent board members and not more than one who receives direct financial benefits. Bennett Weiner, who heads the BBB alliance, said it issued an advisory about ACLJ after the organization didn’t respond to requests for more information about its finances.
The Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, founded 40 years ago by Billy Graham and other evangelical leaders to accredit Christian non-profits, requires independent boards of directors made up of people “not related by blood or marriage to staff members.” CASE and ACLJ are not listed among the council’s 2,400 members.
As Sekulow has positioned himself among Trump’s chief defenders in both the courtroom and as a legal analyst on Fox News, CASE has continued to raise more than $50 million annually through an aggressive mix of telemarketing and direct mail soliciting the conservative faithful to support ACLJ’s courtroom advocacy.
But tax records show much of that money is routed to Sekulow and his family. Over the 10-year period examined by AP, more than $12 million was paid in direct salary and benefits to Sekulow and his family members.
Gary Sekulow, Jay’s 61-year-old brother, was paid a total of $985,947 in salary and benefits in 2017 as the chief operating and financial officer at both ACLJ and CASE – two full-time positions that tax documents indicate would require him to work 80 hours each week.
Adam Sekulow, Gary’s 31-year-old son, was paid $229,227 as the director of development at CASE and $65,052 as the director of major donors at ACLJ the same year.
Records show millions more each year going to for-profit companies controlled by the family. In addition to the $5.8 million ACLJ paid to CLA Group in 2017, $1.4 million was paid to Regency Productions, a company owned by Jay Sekulow that receives his fees for appearing on the radio show “Jay Sekulow Live!” and his television show “ACLJ This Week with Jay Sekulow,” which airs on the same Christian network as Pat Robertson’s “The 700 Club.”
Over the 10-year period reviewed by AP, CLA Group and Regency were paid a combined $46 million in charitable funds by ACLJ and CASE. Millions more were paid by the charities for “airtime,” though the recipients of that money were not detailed in the tax records.
Sekulow’s show is often recorded at a studio located at the Washington, D.C., headquarters of ACLJ. Tax records show the office building, with a current assessed value of $3.8 million, is owned by CASE. The charity controlled by the Sekulow family also owns the spacious four-bedroom, four-bath rowhouse next door, which has a current assessed value of $1.8 million.In this Jan. 28, 2020 photo, Jordan Sekulow, right, the executive director of American Center for Law and Justice, opens a gate as he arrives at a property on Capitol Hill in Washington.This week, an AP photographer saw Jay’s son Jordan Sekulow, 37, entering the residence. A graduate of Regent law school, Jordan Sekulow is the executive director of ACLJ, a member of Trump’s defense team, and also hosts his father’s radio show. ACLJ’s website and affiliated YouTube channel have been posting daily updates about the impeachment trial, reiterating GOP arguments and hammering Democratic House managers.
Jordan’s wife, Anna Sekulow, 36, also works at the charity as a digital media adviser, according to its website. The public tax records do not indicate how much they are paid.
About $6.8 million went to the company PFMS of Georgia f or producing Sekulow’s shows. That company’s website lists Gary Sekulow’s wife, Kimberly Sekulow, 60, as president and CEO. The address for that business is in the same suburban Atlanta building listed on tax returns as the offices for CASE, the charity that pays it.
In addition to his two paid jobs at the non-profits, the couple’s son Adam Sekulow is listed as the acquisition manager at PFMS. His sister Jennifer Sekulow, 27, is the head of market research.
The records show at least $1.2 million was spent by the charities on private jets, including an unusual arrangement where CASE was paying to lease a plane co-owned by the for-profit companies controlled by Jay Sekulow and his sister-in-law.
The tax records show millions more were routed into numerous non-profit and for-profit entities, which makes it challenging to determine who is really getting the money.
For example, ACLJ and CASE made payments to the Law & Justice Institute, a non-profit entity created by Sekulow and Roth. Tax records show that charity’s only activity was to make annual payments to two for-profit companies, Advocacy Services Inc. and Educational Resources Associates.
Virginia incorporation records list “M.G. Robertson” of Virginia Beach as the president and director of Advocacy Services, which received $4 million in payments. Marion Gordon Robertson, 89, is better known to TV viewers by his nickname, Pat.
Incorporation filings for Education Resources Associates in Washington, D.C, list its CEO as John Ashcroft, who served as U.S. attorney general in the administration of President George W. Bush. That company got $2.2 million in consulting fees from the charitable Law & Justice Institute. Ashcroft, 77, is listed as a distinguished professor at Regent University and has appeared with Sekulow at ACLJ events.
Marc Owens, who served for 10 years as the director of the Exempt Organizations Division of the Internal Revenue Service, said the structure of the charities and corporations controlled by the Sekulow family appeared designed to obscure just who is getting paid and how much.
Federal law forbids charities from excessively benefiting those who have “substantial influence over the organization.” Owens said both the IRS and state attorneys general should investigate.
“This is an apparent web of organizations that seem to exist to pay compensation to Sekulow and his family members,” said Owens, who is now in private practice. “That pattern clearly raises questions for those entities that are tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) as to whether they’re operating for a public benefit or the private benefit of Jay Sekulow and his family members.”
Sekulow’s spokesman denied any wrongdoing.
“The financial arrangements between ACLJ, CASE and other entities have been reviewed by outside independent experts and are in compliance with all tax laws,” Kapp said.
Asked who those outside experts are and whether AP could speak with them, Kapp responded that he didn’t have anything to add. 
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Democratic Presidential Hopefuls Woo Iowa Voters Ahead of 2020 Caucus

Democrats in Iowa are grappling with many issues as they weigh who to support in the Feb. 3 Iowa Caucuses, meetings where party voters choose their preferred candidate. As VOA’s Kane Farabaugh reports, it’s the first test for Democratic presidential hopefuls seeking to defeat Republican President Donald Trump in the November election, and comes during a time of low unemployment and a strong economy.
 
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First Votes in 2020 US Presidential Campaign About to be Cast

The first votes of the 2020 U.S. presidential election will be cast Monday, February 3, when the state of Iowa holds its first-in-the-nation caucuses. For the last 50 years, America’s political parties have used a series of caucuses and primary elections to determine their presidential nominee. VOA’s Steve Redisch explains the process.
 
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Bloomberg Backed by DC Mayor; Biden Endorsed by Richmond’s

Democratic presidential candidates Michael Bloomberg and Joe Biden on Thursday announced endorsements from prominent African American mayors as next week’s leadoff Iowa caucuses near.Muriel Bowser, the mayor of Washington, D.C., is backing Bloomberg, a billionaire businessman and former New York City mayor. His outreach and charitable support of city leaders has helped him rack up more than two dozen endorsements since entering the race late last year.FILE – Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden, right, meets with an assembly of Southern black mayors including Mississippi Mayor Chokwe Lumumba and Virginia Mayor Levar Stoney, left, in Atlanta, Nov. 21, 2019.Biden, the former vice president whose campaign relies on his strong support among black voters, was endorsed by Levar Stoney, the mayor of Richmond, Virginia.While Bowser may have a higher national profile as the leader of the nation’s capital, Stoney may prove to be a more significant pickup. Stoney heads the largest city in Virginia, which votes March 3, when 14 states have their turn in the nominating process after the early states have voted.The District of Columbia is the last jurisdiction in the country to vote in the primary, on June 2.
 
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AP Exclusive: Woman Who Says Trump Raped Her Seeks His DNA

Lawyers for a woman who accuses President Donald Trump of raping her in the 1990s are asking for a DNA sample, seeking to determine whether his genetic material is on a dress she says she wore during the encounter.Advice columnist E. Jean Carroll’s lawyers served notice to a Trump attorney Thursday for Trump to submit a sample on March 2 in Washington for “analysis and comparison against unidentified male DNA present on the dress.”Carroll filed a defamation suit against Trump in November after the president denied her allegation. Her lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, then had the black wool coat-style dress tested. A lab report with the legal notice says DNA found on the sleeves was a mix of at least four people, at least one of them male.Several other people were tested and eliminated as possible contributors to the mix, according to the lab report, which was obtained by The Associated Press. Their names are redacted.While the notice is a demand, such demands often spur court fights requiring a judge to weigh in on whether they will be enforced.The Associated Press sent a message to Trump’s attorney seeking comment.Carroll accused Trump last summer of raping her in a Manhattan luxury department store dressing room in the mid-1990s.In a New York magazine piece in June and a book published the next month, Carroll said she and Trump met by chance, chatted and went to the lingerie department for Trump to pick out a gift for an unidentified woman. She said joking banter about trying on a bodysuit ended in a dressing room, where she said Trump reached under her black wool dress, pulled down her tights and raped her as she tried to fight him off, eventually escaping.“The Donna Karan coatdress still hangs on the back of my closet door, unworn and unlaundered since that evening,” she wrote. She donned it for a photo accompanying the magazine piece.Trump said in June that Carroll was “totally lying” and he had “never met this person in my life.” While a 1987 photo shows them and their then-spouses at a social event, Trump dismissed it as a moment when he was “standing with my coat on in a line.”“She is trying to sell a new book — that should indicate her motivation,” he said in one of various statements on the matter, adding that the book “should be sold in the fiction section.”Carroll sued Trump in November, saying he smeared her and hurt her career as a longtime Elle magazine advice columnist by calling her a liar. She is seeking unspecified damages and a retraction of Trump’s statements.“Unidentified male DNA on the dress could prove that Donald Trump not only knows who I am, but also that he violently assaulted me in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman and then defamed me by lying about it and impugning my character,” Carroll said in a statement Thursday.Her lawyer, Kaplan, said it was “standard operating procedure” in a sexual assault investigation to request a DNA sample from the accused.“As a result, we’ve requested a simple saliva sample from Mr. Trump to test his DNA, and there really is no valid basis for him to object,” she said.Trump’s lawyer has tried to get the case thrown out. A Manhattan judge declined to do so earlier this month, saying the attorney hadn’t properly backed up his arguments that the case didn’t belong in a New York court.The Associated Press typically does not name people who say they have been sexually assaulted, unless they come forward publicly.Carroll said she didn’t do so for decades because she feared legal retribution from Trump and damage to her reputation, among other reasons. But when the #MeToo movement spurred reader requests for advice about sexual assault, she said, she decided she had to disclose her own account.Trump, a Republican, isn’t the first president to face the prospect of a DNA test related to a woman’s dress.Former President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, underwent such a test during an independent counsel investigation into whether he had a sexual relationship with onetime White House intern Monica Lewinsky and then lied in denying it under oath.After Clinton’s DNA was found on the dress, he acknowledged an “inappropriate intimate relationship” with Lewinsky.Clinton was impeached by the House in December 1998 and later acquitted by the Senate.
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Biden Under Pressure to Prove He Can Thwart New Republican Attacks

With five days until the Iowa caucuses, Joe Biden is fending off a new onslaught of Republican attacks over his son’s business overseas and facing piling pressure to show Democratic voters he can handle the incoming.As Republicans amplified their allegations against the former vice president, accusing him of nepotism and worse in a series of charges stemming from the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, the Biden campaign promised an aggressive and direct counterstrategy ahead of Monday’s first nominating contest. Biden plans to speak Thursday in Iowa on the same day Trump plans a rally in Des Moines.The Biden campaign was mindful that the last-minute Republican meddling in the Democratic race provides something of a preview of the election ahead should Biden be the party’s nominee. As such, it was a test of whether Iowa voters would see strength or weakness in Biden’s response.Biden made his case Wednesday by openly mocking Florida Sen. Rick Scott, a Republican, for running a digital ad in Iowa that repeats Trump’s discredited theories about Biden’s work in Ukraine as vice president and his son’s private business dealings there. The ad came a day after Trump’s impeachment defense team repeatedly framed Hunter Biden’s tenure on an energy firm’s governing board as the real corruption in need of investigation.“A senator from Florida, sitting in Washington, has decided to start running negative ads against Joe Biden just days before the Iowa caucus,” the elder Biden told several hundred Iowa voters in Sioux City. “What do you think that’s about? Look, it’s simple,” he said, returning to an oft-used line: “They’re smearing me … because they know if I’m the nominee, I’m going to beat Donald Trump like a drum.”Biden adviser Anita Dunn was even more pointed, saying of the Scott ad: “We’ll pay him to keep it up.” Biden campaign manager Greg Schultz said, “This is all a help to us” because it valid Trump’s fear.That’s quite a turn from October, when the Biden campaign sent letters to Facebook, Google and Twitter pressuring the online platforms to block ads from Trump’s reelection campaign that contained similar debunked allegations against the Bidens. But Dunn and Schultz suggest that their new posture could be the better path to turning a potentially damaging story line into an electoral asset.“We are going to call out the lies. We are going to confront him,” Dunn said of how Biden will handle Trump going forward. “If Joe Biden has proven one thing in this race, it’s that he’s the person to stand up to Donald Trump.”Yet there are Democrats who see the Biden controversy as a replay of 2016. In that campaign, Trump deflected myriad stories of his own conflicts of interests and business dealings by hammering away at Democrat Hillary Clinton, her use of a private email server as secretary of state and the foreign contributions to the Clinton Foundation created after her husband Bill Clinton’s presidency.“Whether there’s anything to it or not, there’s going to be a lack of trust and doubt that we could end up like we did four years ago,” said Iowa Democrat Emma Thompson, 63, who is considering caucusing for Biden, but is also considering Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg and Andrew Yang.These aren’t perfect parallels. During the Trump-Clinton campaign, the FBI was actively investigating whether Clinton or her aides subjected classified material to disclosure, and the agency did not close the case — without any criminal charges — until well after Trump was in office. There has been no evidence of wrongdoing by Biden or his son. The elder Biden’s efforts to oust a Ukrainian prosecutor reflected the consensus of the U.S. government and its Western allies. And there’s no evidence the U.S. government has ever actively investigated Hunter Biden’s dealings at Burisma, even under Trump’s Justice Department.Still, Vicky Rossander, an Iowa caucus precinct captain for Sen. Amy Klobuchar, said she’s wary: “I don’t want to spend the whole election hearing about Burisma and Ukraine.”Republicans appear eager to have the fight.Besides Scott, Republican senators including Sen. Lindsey Graham have argued that Hunter Biden or the former vice president himself should be called as impeachment trial witnesses. Joe Biden has said he’d comply if called, but sees his testimony as irrelevant to the charges that Trump abused his power and obstructed Congress. Biden aides said Wednesday that they see “no indication of serious movement” toward calling Hunter Biden or his father.Trump’s 2016 campaign architect, Steve Bannon, confirmed in a recent Bloomberg News interview a deliberate strategy: “Isolate and amplify the most damaging charge against the strongest Democratic candidate and hammer [it] into voters’ minds until Election Day.”And Iowa’s Republican Sen. Joni Ernst joined the chorus this week, emerging from the Senate proceedings to wonder aloud to reporters “how this discussion today informs and influences Iowa caucus voters. … Will they be supporting Vice President Biden at this point?”In Sioux City, Biden thanked Ernst for “screaming the quiet part into the bullhorn.”“She spilled the beans, didn’t she?” Biden said, laughing. “The whole impeachment trial is about whether or not the president tried to interfere in the choice of a nominee for the Democrats.” Outlining his preferred outcome, he continued: “Now all caucus-goers can have a twofer. One, you can not only ruin Donald Trump’s night if I win the caucus — you can ruin Joni Ernst’s night, as well.” 
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AP-NORC Poll: GOP More Fired up for 2020, Democrats Anxious

When it comes to the 2020 presidential election, Democrats are nervous wrecks and Republican excitement has grown.That’s according to a new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research as Americans look ahead to a high-stakes election that is 10 months away but still very much top of mind. While emotions could change in the coming months, the findings give Democrats one more worry to add to the list: Will anxiety or enthusiasm be a bigger motivator come November?On the verge of the first votes being cast in a primary contest with no clear leader , 66% of Democrats report anxiety about the election, compared with 46% of Republicans. Democrats are also more likely to feel frustration. Republicans, meanwhile, are more likely than Democrats to declare excitement about the race, and the share of enthusiastic Republicans appears to be rising.The findings aren’t surprising to anyone who’s talked to an undecided Democrat about the crowded primary field. Behind an intense desire to oust President Donald Trump, Democrats often describe deep uncertainty about what sort of candidate has the best chance and whether the party will be able to win the votes. There’s also hard division over policy and whispers about a contested convention. It can all feel a bit too much for some.“I’m anxious and not really in a good way,” said James Horinek, 32, a Democrat in Lawton, Oklahoma, who works in marketing. “There’s division across the board — there’s too much on the Democratic side and too little on the Republican one.”Republicans, meanwhile, appear to share less of that angst, while their party hangs together on impeachment, the economy and other major issues on Trump’s agenda.“I am not nervous at all. I think Donald Trump will win it in a landslide,” said Clinton Adams, a 39-year-old custodian in the Florida Panhandle.The poll found that 43% of Republicans say they’re excited about the election, up 10 percentage points from October. Meanwhile, 33% of Democrats reported excitement.About three-quarters of both Democrats and Republicans say they are highly motivated to cast ballots this year. But that only raises the question of which emotion will be stronger in turning out the vote around the margins.A party usually wants its voters excited rather than anxious, said George Marcus, a political scientist at Williams College who has studied the role of emotion in politics and polling. Marcus found that voters who report fear and anxiety are more likely to be confused and split their vote.“It creates the possibility for persuasion,” Marcus said of voter worry. “If I’m an anxious Democrat, I may stay home, I may vote Republican. … You want your base to be either really angry at the other side or really enthusiastic.”Still, Marcus noted Democrats have a long way to go before Election Day. The selection of a nominee could calm jitters and stir up excitement for a candidate. Events could also shift GOP voters’ confidence.Anna Greenburg, a Democratic pollster, said the contrast between GOP excitement and Democratic anxiety and frustration is not a surprise.“In general, supporters of the party in power are going to be more optimistic and hopeful, while supporters of the party out of power are going to be frustrated and angry,” Greenburg said.She also noted that Democrats have been stressed since Trump won the White House.“Since Trump was elected, Democrats have been particularly anxious about both the idea of disinformation and election interference in 2020 and what could happen in a second Trump term,” Greenburg said. However, she added, “ there is no evidence that Democrats are any less enthusiastic about voting in 2020, and the results of the 2018 election would suggest that they are highly motivated to vote.”Indeed, the poll suggests that the feeling among Democrats might be a driver: About 9 in 10 anxious Democrats say they feel very motivated to vote this November, compared with about half of those who are not anxious.Tim Farrell is one of those stressed-out Democrats who have been worried since Trump won in 2016. The 58-year-old social worker in Watertown, New York, says he’s been “ill for the last three years.”He has little faith that voters will turn on Trump, but it’s the ongoing impeachment trial in the Republican-controlled Senate that’s raised his anxiety about November. “I’m dreading the expected outcome. He won’t be convicted. He’ll feel he’s invulnerable, and he’s an idiot with his finger on the button,” Farrell said of the president.Farrell expects to donate to whomever the party nominates, and indeed, that’s one way Democratic anxiety may help their party. Eighteen percent of anxious Democrats say they’ve donated, compared with 5% of those who are not anxious.Still, the stress doesn’t feel good to Kathy Tuggle, a retired administrative assistant in Richmond, Indiana. She also dreads the implications of a Trump acquittal — that the president can recruit other countries to help his reelection — and worries about relaxed standards for truth in political ads on Facebook.“I’m just not sure we can have a fair election right now,” the 65-year-old Democrat said. “That’s probably my biggest anxiety right now.”Domingo Rodriguez thinks these worries are ridiculous. The 75-year-old retired translator lives in Fort Myers Beach, Florida, and, though he’s not affiliated with either party, supports Trump. “I think Trump will win again. I’m not nervous,” Rodriguez said, chuckling as he thought about Democrats’ view of the election.“They’re absolutely anxious. For them it’s a matter of life and death,” said Rodriguez, who emigrated from Uruguay decades ago. Not for him, though. “I know I’m going to be living and existing and being in the great United States even if the Democrats win.”
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White House Objects to Bolton Book, Says It Can’t Be Published in Current Form

The White House on Wednesday objected to the publication of a book written by former White House national security adviser John Bolton that depicts President Donald Trump as having played a central role in a pressure campaign on Ukraine. A letter from the White House’s National Security Council to Bolton’s attorney said the manuscript appeared to contain “significant amounts of classified information” and could not be published in its current form. Some material was considered top secret, according to the letter, which was seen by Reuters. “Under federal law and the nondisclosure agreements your client signed as a condition for gaining access to classified information, the manuscript may not be published or otherwise disclosed without the deletion of this classified information,” the letter said. Reports about the contents of Bolton’s book appear to boost the Democrats’ case against Trump at his trial. Democrats want to call Bolton, a foreign policy hawk in several Republican administrations, to testify, but many Republican senators have so far resisted any new witnesses. A spokeswoman for Bolton had no comment. Neither his publisher nor lawyer immediately responded to requests for comment. Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, walks through the Senate subway on his way to the Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump in Washington, Jan. 29, 2020.Meanwhile, senators began the first of two planned days of posing questions to both Trump’s legal team and the Democratic lawmakers in the House of Representatives who have served as prosecutors in the trial on charges of abusing power and obstructing Congress arising from his request that Ukraine investigate political rival Joe Biden. The questioning precedes a vote later in the week on whether to call witnesses, including Bolton, as Democrats have sought. Republicans hold a 53-47 majority in the chamber, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told senators on Tuesday that he did not have the 51 votes needed to block Democrats from calling witnesses because some Republicans remained uncommitted, several media outlets reported. Allowing witnesses such as Bolton could inflict political damage on the Republican president as he seeks re-election on November 3. Trump lashed out at Bolton on Twitter. He said Bolton “couldn’t get approved for the Ambassador to the U.N. years ago, couldn’t get approved for anything since, ‘begged’ me for a non Senate approved job” and added that “if I listened to him, we would be in World War Six by now.” Trump added that Bolton, who left his White House post in September, “goes out and IMMEDIATELY writes a nasty & untrue book. All Classified National Security. Who would do this?”Bolton’s version Contradicting Trump’s version of events, Bolton, in a manuscript for a book yet to be published, wrote that the president told him he wanted to freeze $391 million in security aid to Ukraine until Kyiv pursued investigations into Democrats, including Biden and the former vice president’s son Hunter Biden, The New York Times reported. Bolton’s allegations go to the heart of the impeachment charges. Democrats have said Trump abused his power by using the security aid — passed by Congress to help Ukraine battle Russia-backed separatists — as leverage to get a foreign power to smear a political rival.  Biden is a leading candidate for the Democratic nomination to face Trump in November. Trump has denied telling Bolton he sought to use the aid as leverage to get Ukraine to investigate the Bidens. Trump has said he fired Bolton. Bolton, a foreign policy hawk who served as a temporary “recess appointee” as American ambassador to the United Nations under Republican former President George W. Bush, has said he quit. FILE – U.S. Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 27, 2019.Democrat Eliot Engel, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, took issue with Trump’s contention that Bolton never said anything about the Ukraine matter when he left his post.  Engel said Bolton suggested to him in a September 23 phone call that the panel should look into Trump’s removal last May of Marie Yovanovitch as American ambassador to Ukraine, a pivotal event in the Ukraine matter.Trump ousted her after his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and others mounted a negative campaign against her at a time when Giuliani was pressing Ukraine to pursue the politically motivated investigations at the center of the impeachment drama. ‘The president knew everything’ Ukrainian-born U.S. businessman Lev Parnas, who worked with Giuliani to pressure Ukraine, arrived in Washington from New York and headed toward the U.S. Capitol. He was trailed by TV cameras, photographers and sign-toting demonstrators. Parnas stopped by Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer’s office to pick up tickets to the trial, but it was not clear whether he would be allowed to see it. Parnas will not be able to enter the Senate gallery where the trial is taking place because he is wearing a court-ordered ankle-monitoring device, his lawyer said.  Parnas, facing federal campaign finance charges in New York relating to donations to a pro-Trump political group and others, has provided information to House Democrats damaging to Trump. Lev Parnas, the indicted associate of U.S. President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, talks to his attorney, Joseph Bondy, as he walks to the U.S. Capitol after arriving in Washington, Jan. 29, 2020.Parnas indicated he would be willing to testify in the trial, adding, “The president knew everything that was going on with Ukraine.” Schumer said he provided the tickets, though he is not seeking for Parnas to appear as a witness. Wednesday’s questions during the trial were alternating between Republican and Democratic senators. They were being submitted in writing and read aloud by U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts, who is presiding over the trial. Trump’s legal team wrapped up its opening statements in the trial on Tuesday, saying the president did not commit any impeachable offenses even if what Bolton said was true.  The Senate is expected on Friday to debate and vote on whether to call witnesses. Schumer made a fresh pitch for Republican support for witnesses, saying calling them would not result in a lengthy delay in the trial. 
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Biden, Sanders Lead Field in New Poll Ahead of Monday’s Iowa Caucuses

Former Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders are leading a crowded field of candidates days before Monday’s Iowa caucuses, the first contest in the process of picking a Democratic presidential candidate, according to a poll released on Wednesday.Biden was the choice of 23 percent of likely caucus-goers, the Monmouth University poll shows, slightly ahead of the senator from Vermont at 21 percent. Biden’s lead was well within the survey’s margin of error, meaning the two men were essentially tied.Former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, at 16 percent, and U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, at 15 percent, followed close behind. U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota was at 10 percent, the only other candidate within striking distance of the top candidates.Like other recent polls, the survey showed the candidates bunched together at the top, suggesting a tight finish as the caucus nears.Biden was the choice among older, more moderate voters, while Sanders attracted younger, more liberal voters, according to the poll.The Monmouth University poll was conducted by phone from Jan. 23-27, surveying 544 likely Iowa Democratic caucus-goers. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.2 percentage points, meaning results could vary that much either way.
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GOP Squirms as Bolton Prepares to Dish on Trump White House

For much of the last 20 years, John Bolton was a conservative poster child, a Republican hawk whose worldview helped shape the GOP establishment’s approach to dicey foreign policy questions.Now, as President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser prepares to dish on his days in the White House, some old friends and colleagues are turning on him – and others are nervously wondering what he may be poised to reveal.Leaked passages from the manuscript of Bolton’s soon-to-be published book are roiling Washington, including the revelation that he says Trump told him he was conditioning the release of military aid to Ukraine on whether its government would help investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son.Bolton’s roughly 17-month tenure in as national security adviser brought him rare access to the inner workings of the West Wing and the Cabinet, particularly on matters of global affairs. He was known to take copious notes on yellow legal pads.After this week’s early leaks about the book, White House aides and allies are privately expressing concern about what more Bolton might reveal that the president and others in his orbit would find embarrassing.Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., gave voice to GOP pique about Bolton’s revelations in an interview with Fox News. He said Bolton had long argued for expansive executive powers to protect a president’s conversations with his advisers but “now he’s going to argue that no, no, no, now that I have a book deal for a couple of million bucks, that it’s OK for me to say and spill the beans on everything the president’s said to me privately.”Less than two years ago, Rep. Mark Meadows, a North Carolina Republican and Trump impeachment team manager, praised the president for bringing Bolton into the White House, saying the president “could not have made a better pick” for the key role in the administration. Bolton, who served as United Nations ambassador in the George W. Bush administration, was a fierce advocate for the 2003 war in Iraq and has pushed for military action in Iran, North Korea and Venezuela.But this week, following news reports that Bolton made damaging charges about Trump in the forthcoming book, Meadows questioned why Democrats were treating Bolton as some sort of potential “super witness” to make their case in the impeachment trial.Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, earlier this month said Bolton’s testimony “could well be beneficial” to Trump in the impeachment trial. But after this week’s leaks about the book, Cornyn questioned whether there would be much value in hearing from Bolton, saying “it’s nothing different than what we’ve already heard.”Democrats are pressing for Bolton to be called as a witness in the Senate trial, but need the support of at least four Republican senators to make it a reality. Only a few GOP senators have suggested they may be interested.Fred Fleitz, a former chief of staff on Trump’s National Security Council and a friend of Bolton, wrote in an opinion article for Fox’s website that Bolton’s decision to write a “tell-all” was “crushing” and urged him to withdraw it from his publisher immediately.”I don’t understand the need for a former National Security Adviser to publish a tell-all book critical of a president he served, especially during a presidential reelection campaign that will determine the fate of the country,” Fleitz wrote. “There will be a time for Bolton to speak out without appearing to try to tip a presidential election.”Trump himself has disputed Bolton’s assertion of a concerted pressure campaign on Ukraine’s leader. And Trump has dismissed Bolton as a disgruntled employee whom he fired because of policy differences. Bolton, who left the White House last year, insists he offered his resignation before Trump announced his ouster.Trump jabbed at Bolton in a tweet Wednesday, referring to his former adviser as the “guy who couldn’t get approved for the Ambassador to the U.N. years ago” and accusing him of “mistakes of judgment.” Bolton is well-known for his hard-line policy views against Iran and North Korea.Bush installed Bolton as U.S. ambassador to the U.N. through what is known as a “recess appointment” when the Senate was out of session. He stepped down at the end of that appointment because he was unlikely to win Senate confirmation, largely due to his foreign policy vision.In the tweet, Trump also complained that Bolton, after he was fired, “goes out and IMMEDIATELY writes a nasty & untrue book. All Classified National Security. Who would do this?”Trump allies, including personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and 2016 campaign adviser Jason Miller, slammed Bolton and said he was being untruthful in order to drive up book sales and remain relevant.”There is no way in the world President Trump would say this to John Bolton,” Giuliani tweeted. “It’s a shame that a man will sacrifice his integrity to make a few bucks on a book. No wonder he accomplished so little as National Security Advisor.”In an interview scheduled for airing Wednesday on “CBS This Morning,” Giuliani called Bolton a “backstabber.”As Trump’s legal team has presented the president’s defense this week, it has made the case that Trump never conditioned aid on an investigation of the Bidens.The president’s lawyers have also argued that even if Trump had pressed for the investigation, it doesn’t rise to level of an impeachable offense.In a sideswipe at Bolton, one of Trump’s attorneys, Jay Sekulow, argued Tuesday that senators cannot impeach a president on an “unsourced allegation.”Administration officials have also sought to undercut another revelation from the Bolton manuscript, one reported Monday by The New York Times. It said Bolton told Attorney General William Barr last year that he had concerns that Trump was effectively granting personal favors to the leaders of Turkey and China. According to the manuscript, Barr told Bolton he was worried Trump was creating the appearance that he had undue influence over independent Justice Department probes.The Justice Department has disputed the assertion that there was any discussion of personal favors or undue influence on investigations. The department also disputes that Barr ever said the president’s conversations with foreign leaders were inappropriate.”If this is truly what Mr. Bolton has written, then it seems he is attributing to Attorney General Barr his own current views – views with which Attorney General Barr does not agree,” Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said in a statement.Others are standing by Bolton.John Kelly, who served as Trump’s chief of staff and overlapped with Bolton in the White House, said Monday in Florida that he believes the former national security adviser’s account, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported.”If John Bolton says that in the book, I believe John Bolton,” Kelly said. 
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Democratic Presidential Contenders Make Final Push in Iowa

The latest polls show Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders surging in the Democratic primary race, both in national surveys and in Iowa, where the first contest of the 2020 campaign kicks off Monday.  Sanders is among several top Democratic contenders competing for support in the Iowa presidential caucuses and the outcome is seen as crucial in what could be a long battle for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination.  VOA National correspondent Jim Malone has more from Washington.
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Ricky Martin Draws Inspiration from Puerto Rico Protests

Ricky Martin’s wide smile began to fade as the Puerto Rican superstar talked about his next album.It’s influenced by the U.S. territory’s political turmoil as people struggle to recover from Hurricane Maria and a recent 6.4 magnitude earthquake that killed one person and destroyed hundreds of homes amid a 13-year recession.“I’m going to use my music to carry the message of all those who aren’t being heard,” he told The Associated Press on Monday while preparing for a concert on his native island.The 48-year-old father of four children joined in the big demonstrations last year that led Ricardo Rossello to resign as the island’s governor, and although he hasn’t been at the most recent protests against current Gov. Wanda Vazquez, he has gone on social media urging her to step down.Puerto Rican singer Ricky Martin, who will perform in concert Feb. 7 at the Puerto Rico Coliseum Jose Miguel Agrelot, poses for a portrait in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Jan. 27, 2020.“It would be an act of justice for our island,” he said in a video Thursday. “There are no immediate legal mechanisms for you and your entire team to leave and pay for all our suffering. But I have good news. The elections come in November and I am certain, certain, that the people will rise up more than ever.”Protests change albumMartin’s upcoming album is not the one he originally envisioned. He said he was going through a very romantic period in his life when he began recording, but all that changed when the 2019 protests in Puerto Rico erupted. The demonstrations were fed by anger over corruption and over the way the government responded to Hurricane Maria, the September 2017 storm that wreaked havoc on the island, killing an estimated 2,975 people in its aftermath.Martin participated in the demonstrations alongside other artists and found a new idea for the album.“When I returned to the studio, everything that I had done musically expired because I had poetic material in my head to share with the world after what happened in the streets of Puerto Rico,” he said.Martin said the album will be titled “Movimiento” and will contain 12 songs.“In all of them, I will in some way express everything that I experienced,” he said, alluding to the demonstrations. “All of the stories I heard from people who simply were not being heard.”One of the album’s songs is the newly released single “Tiburones,” which means sharks in Spanish. The video was shot in Puerto Rico and shows a woman face to face with police in riot gear. Around her neck is a green kerchief that Martin said was the actress’ idea to wear and one he fully supports since it symbolizes the fight for a woman’s right to have an abortion.“What I’ve always wanted is a woman to have the right to do whatever she wants with her body,” he said. “I’m always going to defend that.”Singer criticizedSome have criticized Martin’s involvement in the 2019 protests and his recent comments regarding the current government’s response to the earthquake and strong aftershocks, accusing him of being an opportunist and of riling people up only to leave the island afterward. Others have posted online messages asking that he stay out of the island’s affairs.Martin remains unfazed.“I shouldn’t be interested in Puerto Rico because I don’t live in Puerto Rico?” he asked. “To the contrary. I believe that not being on the island has made me appreciate my culture more, appreciate my people more, my language, my music, where I come from.”
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Trump Team Closes Impeachment Defense

Lawyers for US President Donald Trump closed their defense Tuesday, telling the 100 senators weighing his removal from office he did nothing wrong in his dealings with Ukraine. The first phase of the Senate impeachment trial comes to a close amid a fight over admitting new evidence and witnesses – including former National Security Advisor John Bolton – into the next phase. VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson reports on what’s next on Capitol Hill.
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Could Tbilisi Decide Iowa Caucuses in 2020 US Presidential Race?    

Next week’s Iowa caucuses are coming to Tbilisi, the capital of the country of Georgia.For the first time, Iowa’s Democratic Party designated Tbilisi as well as Paris, France and Glasgow, Scotland as international satellite caucus sites, along with 96 new voting locations in the state and across the U.S. where Iowa Democrats can register who they want as their party’s presidential nominee.Expanding these voting sites will “make these caucuses the most accessible” in the party’s history, said Troy Price, the Iowa Democratic Party Chairman.The Iowa caucuses, to be held on Feb. 3, will kick off the 2020 U.S. presidential primary season, to be followed within days by the New Hampshire primary. Democratic candidates are competing to become the party’s standard-bearer and face off against the Republican Party’s presumed presidential nominee, President Donald Trump, in November.Unlike a presidential primary where voters merely cast a ballot for the candidate of their choice, the more time consuming caucus process requires voters to cluster together in support of candidate. Participants may try to persuade wavering voters to join their side — or even attempt to convince voters to switch allegiance.“What makes a caucus distinctive, of course, is that people are literally voting with their feet,” said Karen Kedrowski, director of The Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics at the Iowa State University.Why Tbilisi?The Tbilisi site will be hosted by Joshua Kucera, a freelance journalist living in Georgia. Kucera, who is from Des Moines, told the New York Times, “there’s no specific reasons for an Iowan to be here.” So far, he said, only two other Iowa expats have registered for the Tbilisi caucus. As to why Kucera wants to host a caucus, he said “I’m a proud Iowan, nostalgic for Iowa and I like doing Iowan things.”Kucera told VOA in an email he plans to write about his experiencing hosting the caucus in Tbilisi for another news organization.The other international sites will be held at a university in Paris and at the home of a graduate student studying in Glasgow.The 99 Iowa caucuses satellite locations were designated by the Democratic Party following an extensive application process. Organizations and individuals interested in hosting a caucus had to estimate the potential number of Iowa participants in these areas.Symbolic impactWhile the Democratic Party has expanded access, it has limited the potential impact of the satellite caucuses, ruling that no more than 10%  of delegates will be selected based on the outcomes from these sites.But political analysts will be looking to see if the expanded caucus sites significantly increase participation among more diverse populations and what new voter patterns may emerge.“I’m going to definitely be watching to see if these folks who are participating in the satellite caucuses had a different outcome than those who went to the traditional caucuses,” said Kedrowski, with Iowa State University’s Catt Center for Women and Politics.The Republican party of Iowa will also be holding caucuses on the same night but will not participate in the expanded satellite locations. President Donald Trump, who is running for second term of office, is overwhelmingly favored over two other register Republican candidates, former U.S. Congressman Joe Walsh and former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld.Virtual optionThe Iowa Democratic Party considered but ultimately rejected a virtual caucus option, for voters to participate over the phone or on an online platform, due to cybersecurity concerns.  This year’s expanded caucus sites and schedules, the Democratic Party hopes, will facilitate greater participation among busy parents with children, people working night shifts, students away from home and Iowans living abroad.In the past, the downside of the time-consuming caucus process has been lower voter turnout. In the 2016 Iowa caucuses only 15.7%  of the voting population participated. In contrast, over 50%  of New Hampshire voters cast ballots in the 2016 primary.  Iowa Democrats also rejected proposals to allow early voting or mailing in ballots that would blur the distinction between caucus and primary.New Hampshire state law requires that its primary election be the first one held in the nation. By holding caucuses rather than a traditional election, Iowa’s contest technically does not conflict with New Hampshire’s traditional first primary position.  
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Bloomberg Creates a Parallel Presidential Race. Can he Win?

When the leading Democratic presidential candidates marked Martin Luther King Jr. Day by linking arms and marching through South Carolina’s capital, Michael Bloomberg was nowhere near the early primary state.The former New York mayor was instead in Arkansas, tossing out candy at a King Day parade and enjoying his status as the only presidential hopeful in town.“Mike Boomerang?” a woman asked, as the billionaire businessman walked by.“Mike Bloomberg,” a supporter clarified. “He’s running for president.”Bloomberg is running, but he’s on his own track, essentially creating a parallel race to the nomination with no precedent. While his competitors are hunkered down in the four states with the earliest primaries, Bloomberg is almost everywhere else — a Minnesota farm, a Utah co-working space, an office opening in Maine. He’s staked his hopes on states like Texas, California and Arkansas that vote on March 3, aiming to disrupt the Democratic primary right around the time it’s typically settling on a front-runner. Or, should Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, be that front-runner, Bloomberg could be a backstop to Democrats still looking for a moderate choice.Skipping the early voting states and banking on success in later delegate-rich contests has never been done successfully. But no candidate has ever brought the financial firepower that Bloomberg can — he is worth an estimated $60 billion and has already spent more than $200 million building a campaign in more than two dozen states, taking him well past Super Tuesday.“Every other campaign thinks about this as a sequential set of contests. They spend time in Iowa and New Hampshire … hoping that they’ll (get a) momentum bounce from one to the next,” said Dan Kanninen, Bloomberg’s states director. “We’re thinking about this as a national conversation.”There’s little public polling available to measure Bloomberg’s progress. National polls show his support in the mid to high single digits, similar to that of former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg.But interviews with voters and party officials across the Super Tuesday states show Bloomberg is still just starting to make an impression. While officials marveled at the inescapable ambition of Bloomberg’s advertising, many voters still do not know who he is, or know only what they’ve seen on television. Others noted they were interested but were still waiting to see who emerged as a clear leader in earlier contests.“I’ve been trying to read up on him to figure out if he’s going to be my key player,” said Cassandra Barbee, a hotel worker who watched Bloomberg in the Arkansas parade. She said his ads about helping people access health care appeal to her.Bloomberg isn’t the sole candidate campaigning beyond the first four states. Elizabeth Warren’s campaign said it has more than 1,000 staffers, the same number Bloomberg has been touting, across 31 states. All the major campaigns have operations in California, the biggest delegate prize, and several are up and running in states like Texas and North Carolina.But no candidate’s reach matches Bloomberg’s. He had spent more than $225 million on television and digital advertisements as of mid-January, according to the tracking firm Advertising Analytics, and he’s run television ads in at least 27 states. That’s 10 times what each of the other leading candidates has spent, according to the firm’s tracking.Bloomberg has already campaigned in every Super Tuesday state, in addition to states like Florida, Michigan, and Ohio, which vote later but are major general election battleground states where Bloomberg thinks his message will resonate. Meanwhile, his campaign pushes out a steady stream of endorsements, policy plans and ads that keep him in the headlines as Iowa’s caucuses near.“He’s definitely piquing my interest,” said Erica Moore, a guidance counselor at Little Rock schools. Moore said she’s aware of Bloomberg because his ads air constantly but said she wasn’t sure whether she’d vote for him.How exactly Bloomberg plans to win enough delegates to capture the nomination is unclear. The campaign acknowledges public polls show he hasn’t hit the 15% threshold he will need to win delegates, which are awarded proportionally statewide and by congressional district. Kanninen would not set hard targets for what success looks like on Super Tuesday, when a third of all delegates are awarded. Bloomberg needs to win some delegates, Kanninen said, but regardless of performance, “we’re prepared to move on and compete vigorously.”But winning a share of delegates isn’t enough, said Democratic strategist Bill Carrick, who argued that Bloomberg needs to win several Super Tuesday states to be credible. And Bloomberg’s anti-Trump advertising may not move voters his way in the primary, Carrick said.“I think that people are going to separate out whether they want him to have a robust effort in the general election taking on Trump versus him being the candidate,” he said.The best boost to Bloomberg’s chances may be what happens in the weeks leading up to Super Tuesday. As national and early state polls show Sanders in a strong position, Bloomberg could emerge as a moderate alternative should former Vice President Joe Biden or other candidates look weak. While Bloomberg has said he would support Sanders if he were the nominee, the two differ sharply on policy.Winning the primary isn’t Bloomberg’s only aim. He hopes his ads and organizing soften the ground for whomever Democrats pick to challenge Trump and help Democrats in down-ticket races. Bloomberg has committed to continue to spend millions — keeping offices and organizers in battleground states — regardless of whether he is the nominee.One of those states is North Carolina, where the campaign announced this week it had more than 100 paid employees. That’s a staffing benchmark more typical for a general election campaign. Hardly a local newscast or game show passes by in a major TV market that a Bloomberg commercial isn’t airing.“He’s really giving North Carolina Democrats the chance to fight in the general election by running ads now,” said Justin Vollmer, a top Bloomberg adviser in the state.Those ads tout his record on issues like health care and gun control and attack Trump, branding him a “dangerous demagogue” and calling for his removal from office. “Mike will get it done” is the former mayor’s slogan.A former Republican and a businessman, Bloomberg believes he’ll appeal to moderates and conservatives frustrated with the president. But he has clear competition on that argument from both Biden and Buttigieg.Judy Eason McIntyre, 74, who attended a Bloomberg speech last week in Tulsa, Oklahoma, thinks he would match up well against Trump, but that’s not enough to win her vote.“I’m one of those older black folks that’s going to stick with Biden,” said McIntyre, a former state senator and longtime Democratic Party activist. “But out of the candidates I see, being practical, he and Michael Bloomberg are the ones who could beat Trump, and that’s what I’m after.”Bloomberg’s campaign says it’s not focused on comparison with other Democrats.“We’re not really running against the field — we’re running against Donald Trump,” Kanninen said.Bloomberg recently brought his anti-Trump message to Utah, where Democratic presidential primary ads are “relatively unheard of,” said Jeff Merchant, chair of the Utah Democratic Party. Speaking in Salt Lake City last week, Bloomberg appealed to left-leaning voters who feel overlooked in a state that hasn’t supported a Democrat for president since 1964.“We shouldn’t be writing off any state no matter how red people think it is,” Bloomberg said while speaking at a modern co-working space.In some Super Tuesday states, Bloomberg is coming with a history that won’t necessarily help him court moderates and disaffected Republicans. In Virginia, which offers the third-most Super Tuesday delegates, he helped Democrats win full control of the state legislature for the first time in a generation last year through spending by his gun control group, Everytown for Gun Safety.Democrats are now set to pass a slate of gun control measures, prompting the National Rifle Association to put Bloomberg’s face on a billboard. Such notoriety could serve to bolster his credentials with Democrats but turn off voters in gun-friendly southern states.Perhaps the biggest question of Bloomberg’s candidacy is whether an ad blitz is enough to win over primary voters. In California, Republican businesswoman Meg Whitman lost statewide in 2010 after spending nearly $100 million, losing to the better-known Democrat Jerry Brown.And in Texas, it wasn’t a barrage of TV ads that laid the groundwork for Democrat Beto O’Rourke to nearly win a Senate seat in 2018. It was his up-close-and-personal campaign that took him to every single county that captured voters’ attention.So far, no major Texas officials have backed Bloomberg, even after he finished a five-city bus tour through the state earlier this month.But Garry Mauro, who was the Texas chairman for both Clintons’ presidential campaigns, sees Bloomberg’s strategy as sensible. Mauro, who supports Biden, says no candidate but Bloomberg has the money to saturate Texas’ many television markets, and there’s no guarantee that a clear front-runner will emerge before Super Tuesday.“He’s betting on nobody’s getting the momentum, and he can get his own momentum on TV,” he said. “That’s a totally different approach than what we’ve ever seen before.”
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As Primaries Near, Buttigieg Struggles to Make Headway With Black Voters

Pete Buttigieg is betting big on Iowa and New Hampshire, hoping success in the largely white states will help him overcome dismal support from black voters by the time more diverse states weigh in on his bid for the presidency.Buttigieg’s most recent swing through South Carolina, the first state with a large black population to hold a primary, underscored the depth of his challenge with the critical Democratic voting bloc.Amid campaign stops designed to put Buttigieg before black audiences, the white, openly gay, former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, faced continued questions about his record on race, his ability to earn black voters’ trust and his sexuality.”It’s South Carolina. We are gas, sweet tea and religion,” said Mattie Thomas, who co-chairs the state’s Democratic Black Women Caucus. “For many people, they believe their God won’t let them support him.”Buttigieg, 38, has spent the last year successfully courting Democratic donors and voters in the predominantly white states of Iowa and New Hampshire, where polls show the Harvard-educated, military veteran in the top tier of candidates a week before Iowa’s Feb. 3 caucuses.But a lack of black voter support could doom his White House chances. A national Washington Post-Ipsos poll this month showed Buttigieg with just 2% support from Democratic black voters nationally, far behind former Vice President Joe Biden’s 48% and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders’ 20%. In South Carolina, where roughly 30% of the population is black, Buttigieg has remained in the single digits.Buttigieg lacks the national profile and long-standing relationships with the black community that have boosted Biden. His recently ended tenure as mayor has come under scrutiny, including a lack of diversity on the local police force and a fatal shooting of a black resident by a police officer.He has tried to confront those concerns head-on. Buttigieg named black employees to key positions on the campaign and released a detailed policy proposal – dubbed the Frederick Douglass Plan, named after the 19th-century abolitionist leader who was born into slavery – that would send more federal money to black colleges and black-owned businesses, said Hasoni Pratts, the campaign’s national engagement director. On Monday, the campaign announced endorsements from three state officials, including the first black mayor of the small town of Anderson.”MOSTLY WHITE PEOPLE SHOWING UP”Yet at an event last week at Claflin University, a historically black college in Orangeburg, South Carolina, Buttigieg said most of his campaign events in the state still
lacked diversity.“I’ll be honest, it’s mostly white people showing up,” Buttigieg said. “In order to win, in order to deserve to win, I need to be speaking to everyone,” he added.Larry McCutcheon, a 69-year-old black pastor, said he was open to voting for Buttigieg and gets angry at the portrayal of blacks as homophobic. Looking at some empty seats in the university hall, McCutcheon said the bigger issue was that Buttigieg’s message had not resonated with enough black voters in the state.”You can see just from this event that he has a problem,” McCutcheon said.Buttigieg’s campaign blames his sluggish poll numbers on black voters’ lack of familiarity with the candidate, who did not have a national profile before entering the race. As that changes, so will his poll numbers, the campaign says.In a phone interview, Pratts said the campaign had been the victim of a “false” narrative that had “spiraled out control” about Buttigieg’s handling of race issues during his tenure as mayor.She said Buttigieg would keep showing up at events with black voters and answering tough questions.“ I get this is an ongoing process of earning trust,” Buttigieg said in Orangeburg. “I get that, as a new guy, I don’t have decades worth of experience with folks around the country. We have our story of our city, which is good, bad and indifferent.”Afterward, Delanie Frierson, 66, said it was unlikely she would vote for Buttigieg in South Carolina’s Feb. 29 primary. She believes he has falsely equated gay rights to civil rights, a comparison she describes as insulting.“Pete can walk into a room and no one will know if he’s gay,” she said. “A black person can’t do that.”
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Pence Visiting Wisconsin’s Capital City, Liberal Stronghold

Vice President Mike Pence’s planned visit on Tuesday to Wisconsin’s liberal stronghold of Madison may signal the opening of a new front in the hotly contested campaign to win the battleground state.
Pence was coming for an event celebrating the private school voucher program, which began in Milwaukee 30 years ago and has grown in popularity in the state and country since then. It’s an issue championed by conservatives, and one that Pence supported as governor of Indiana, giving him the chance to appeal to Republican voters in a swing state.
“The Trump campaign is going to do everything they can to find every last voters they can, everywhere they can,” said Wisconsin Democratic strategist Scott Spector.
Democratic strategist Joe Zepecki said Pence’s visit is more about the event itself than where it’s located. But he and Republicans agreed that President Donald Trump is looking for every vote they can in Wisconsin, even in areas like Madison where there are few to be had.
Madison, home to the University of Wisconsin, has so long been the epicenter of liberals in Wisconsin that a former Republican governor in 1978 dubbed it “30 square miles surrounded by reality.” Democrats know they will win in Madison and usually don’t bother to campaign there, if at all, until the waning days of the race when the goal is to fire up the base.
Pence is coming for the first time as vice president, 10 months before the election and just two weeks after Trump held a rally in Milwaukee.
Trump narrowly won Wisconsin by fewer than 23,000 votes in 2016. He was crushed in Madison and Milwaukee, the epicenters of Democratic support in Wisconsin. Trump got just 15% of the vote in Madison and 18% in Milwaukee.
Even so, coming to Madison now in an election year makes sense because of the media attention the stops generate that will reach voters in more conservative areas far beyond the city’s border, said Republican strategist Brandon Scholz. It also shows that the Trump campaign knows in a tight race it will need to maximize its votes everywhere, not just in rural counties it easily won four years ago, Scholz said.
“They can’t rely on the rest of the state to put them over the top given the intensity the other side will have getting out their base,” he said.
Pence’s stop in Madison is more about securing Republican votes than it is about trying to make inroads with Democrats, he said. In Dane County, where Madison is located, more than 71,000 people voted for Trump in 2016. While it was just 23% of the county total, it was more votes than Trump got in all but two of the state’s 71 other counties.
Still, it is unusual for top-of-the-ticket Republicans to spend time in Madison. Former President George W. Bush, the last incumbent Republican president to run for reelection in 2004, did not campaign in Madison during the entire campaign that year when Wisconsin was also a priority for both sides.
In contrast, his Democratic challenger, John Kerry, held a massive rally with Bruce Springsteen just down the street from the state Capitol that attracted an estimated 80,000 people. Bush lost Wisconsin by just over 11,000 votes on his way to winning reelection.
In 2012, then-President Barack Obama held a rally in the shadow of Wisconsin’s Capitol, again with Springsteen, the day before the election and attracted 20,000 people. Just a month earlier in the campaign he attracted 30,000 people to a rally on the UW campus.
Pence was looking for an event during national school choice week to attend and picked the one in Madison, said Wisconsin School Choice President Jim Bender.
Pence may have been motivated to come by the topic of the event, but with it being in Madison he gets the added bonus of coming to a liberal city in a swing state that he otherwise may have never campaigned in, said the Democratic Spector.
“It’s a smart tactic,” Spector said. “They are taking nothing for granted.”  
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Warren Offers Infectious-disease Plan Amid China Outbreak

Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren has announced a plan to prevent, contain and treat infectious diseases as a new viral illness spreads in China.The Massachusetts senator on Tuesday unveiled a plan that includes fully funding the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s pandemic prevention and response programs. The agency has faced stiff budget cuts under President Donald Trump, including to emergency funds and global health programs that were established following West Africa’s Ebola epidemic in 2014.“Like so much else, Trump’s approach to keeping us safe from disease outbreaks is a mess,” Warren wrote in an online post announcing the plan. “But when he’s gone, we can fix it.”Warren’s proposal comes as the coronavirus has killed more than 100 people in China and the city at the center of the crisis, Wuhan, remains on lockdown. The U.S. has confirmed cases in Washington state, Illinois, Southern California and Arizona.The timing of Warren’s announcement was no accident — nor is the fact that she’s the candidate drawing up the proposal. During more than a year of campaigning, Warren has embraced the reputation of having “a plan” for nearly everything. She remains bunched near the top of the polls with former Vice President Joe Biden, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigeig, with the Iowa caucuses, which lead off primary voting, looming on Feb. 3.Warren blamed the Trump administration for proposing “billions in cuts to the agencies responsible for fighting and preventing pandemics, a devastating blow that would put lives at risk.” Not all of those reductions have been approved by Congress, though.She also promised to push the CDC to develop vaccines against infectious diseases, including a universal immunization against the flu. But it is the National Institutes of Health that has already made a priority of developing a better flu vaccine.Warren said she can mitigate the spread of disease by fighting climate change and moving the U.S. to a universal, government-funded health system under the “Medicare for All” program. She also wants to increase NIH funding by $100 billion.Although such a high price tag may make it difficult to survive the appropriations process, Warren plans to help with the funding by creating a “swear jar.” That would be a pot of money requiring private companies to pay some of their profits from publicly funded research back to the NIH.Warren further promises to work with Congress to replenish funding for the Department of Health and Human Services’ Public Health Emergency Fund to better respond to outbreaks and to create a Global Health Security Corps that will “ensure that we can get the right expertise to the center of an outbreak before it becomes an epidemic.”“Diseases like coronavirus remind us why we need robust international institutions, strong investments in public health, and a government that is prepared to jump into action at a moment’s notice,” Warren wrote. “When we prepare and effectively collaborate to address common threats that don’t stop at borders, the international community can stop these diseases in their tracks.”
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Bolton Testimony Could Change Trump Impeachment Trial

The impeachment trial of U.S. President Donald Trump resumed Monday amid reports of new evidence that could change Republican senators’ vote for witness testimony later this week. A New York Times report revealed former National Security Advisor John Bolton alleges Trump personally told him he conditioned aid to Ukraine on an investigation into his political rivals. VOA’s Congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson has more on the potential turning-point in the impeachment case.
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