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TODAY'S HEADLINES:
Former National Security Advisor John Bolton dropped a bomb on Trump’s impeachment case this weekend, alleging in an unreleased book that the president wanted to keep military aid to Ukraine frozen until the country agreed to investigate the Bidens.
Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders surges in Iowa. In a new Emerson College poll, Sanders hit a whopping _thirty_ percent support in the Iowa Democratic Caucuses. Joe Biden trails, at 21 percent, with a week to go before the vote.
And lastly, the new coronavirus originating from China continues to spread, as the Chinese government imposes a strict quarantine on a region that 53 million people call home.
THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:
John Bolton had himself quite a weekend!
No, he didn’t get the war with Iran he always wanted, but Trump’s former National Security Advisor did throw himself into another battle.
In a draft of an unreleased book obtained by the _New York Times_, Bolton claims that Trump directly told him that he wanted to freeze aid to Ukraine until the country had begun investigating the Bidens.
This claim could shake up the entire impeachment trial, as it directly contradicts the center of Trump’s defense, which argues that the freeze of military aid was unconnected to Trump’s ask that Ukraine announce investigations into Joe Biden’s son Hunter and other political enemies.
President Donald Trump denied Bolton’s claims on Twitter Sunday night, saying they were only to quote “sell a book.”
Sure enough, Bolton’s book popped up for pre-order on Amazon right after the accusations in his manuscript came to light. But that doesn’t mean he’s lying!
The book is currently in the nebulous “pre-publication review” process at the White House, where the Administration has likely summoned as many actually literate people as it can find to pore over the manuscript and try to squash it before its planned release date of March 17.
Bolton himself has said he would comply with a Senate subpoena to testify in Trump’s impeachment trial -- assuming it’s allowed.
The Senate votes this week on whether or not to allow witnesses and documents to be subpoenaed, which given Mitch McConnell’s unholy sway over the Republican majority, isn’t looking good.
The news just keeps getting better for Bernie Sanders.
Following a strong week in the polls last week, a new Emerson College poll has the Senator at an honestly impressive 30 percent support in Iowa’s notoriously fickle caucuses.
The poll, which was taken between January 23 and 26, has Bernie at 30 percent support, Biden at 21 percent, and Amy Klobuchar of all people in third at 13 percent.
Elizabeth Warren comes in next at 11, and Pete Buttigieg scrapes into double digits with 10.
The poll is just more evidence that Sanders is a real front runner. But that doesn’t mean Iowa is his to lose yet.
A Suffolk University poll conducted over the same period still had Biden in the lead, at 25 percent to Bernie’s 19.
And the nature of the Iowa Caucuses give it all an extra wrinkle: because voters can switch to a second-choice candidate, all kinds of crazy situations could happen.
All the candidates are looking to hit a 15 percent mark to become viable and lock in at least some delegates from the state. Unlike many other primaries, Iowa isn’t winner-take-all, but whoever takes the most delegates usually considers themselves the victor.
The fun stuff happens when supporters of the smaller candidates who don’t hit 15 percent start to change their votes, putting a whole lot of variables into the whole process.
There’s a week left until the Caucuses start, so polling numbers could change again -- but for now, the Sanders campaign looks to be in a pretty good spot.
The new strain of coronavirus is quickly becoming a global fear, and the Chinese government’s attempts to stop it may just be making things worse.
The disease, a respiratory virus similar to SARS, has sickened almost 3,000 people around the world, mostly in China, which reported almost a thousand new infections on Monday. At least 80 people have died.
The virus worries global health officials because of how quickly it spreads, especially in population-dense countries like China. Already, cases have popped up in Thailand, Hong Kong, Australia and the United States, among others.
The Chinese government has taken drastic steps to confront the disease: extending the lunar new year holiday until February 3rd to postpone travel, and even placing a quarantine on the area the disease is most concentrated.
These measures, however, may not be enough. Five million people left the area before it was locked down, and disease experts warn that the quarantine may make the health crisis inside even worse by getting in the way of distributing food, water and medical supplies to sick residents.
These conditions could lead to unrest as people realize their government is failing to control and treat the disease.
AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:
The Washington Post suspended a reporter on Sunday after she tweeted a link to an article about the rape allegations against Kobe Bryant, who died with his daughter and 7 others in a helicopter crash earlier in the day. The Post claims she was suspended not for posting the article, but for posting an unredacted screenshot of her email inbox, which was full of hate messages from Kobe’s fans.
Tennessee’s Republican Governor signed a bill on Friday that will continue using taxpayer’s money to fund faith-based foster care and adoption agencies that discriminate against LGBTQ families. The Trump administration is reportedly thinking about making this policy a nationwide rule.
The White House provided press credentials for Trump’s Davos trip to TruNews, a conservative Christian website whose founder has claimed that impeaching the president is a quote “Jew coup” endquote. It’s nice to see the Trump administration finally respecting the first amendment, at least!
Puerto Rico was hit by a 5.0 magnitude earthquake on Saturday after suffering heavy flooding in recent rains as well. The territory has been hit by quakes every day for nearly a month.
#AMQuickie: Thursday, January 27th, 2020
HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner
WRITER - Jack Crosbie
PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn