President Donald Trump spent the day after his impeachment acquittal triumphantly basking in the political victory he pulled off with the help of almost all his Republican allies. At an address from the White House that was nakedly partisan and included only Republican lawmakers, Trump denounced the impeachment proceedings as a “disgrace,” saying he “went through hell unfairly.” Sputtering angrily at Democratic leaders, Trump lashed out in a manner never seen from a President. Ahead of his White House address Trump spoke earlier at the National Prayer breakfast meeting where he railed especially against Republican Senator Mitt Romney, the sole GOP vote against him in the Senate. Trump said, without any hint of irony, “I don’t like people who use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong.” At both the White House and the National Prayer breakfast Trump celebrated his impeachment acquittal holding up a newspaper with the headline, “Trump Acquitted.” 

Speaking at a Press Conference after the National Prayer Breakfast House Speaker Nancy Pelosi criticized Trump’s behavior and words. She also justified ripping up the transcript of Trump’s State of the Union address on Tuesday on live television. Meanwhile, other Democratic lawmakers took to the pages of newspapers to express themselves. The House impeachment managers wrote a joint op-ed in the Washington Post titled, “Trump won’t be vindicated. The Senate won’t be, either.” Representative Adam Schiff and others wrote, “Because of the impeachment process, voters can now stand forewarned of the lengths to which the president will go to try to secure his reelection, violating the law and undermining our national security and that of our allies.” 

Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown also published his opinion in the New York Times on Wednesday sharing that Republican lawmakers in private are fearful of Trump and admit his wrongdoing. Brown wrote, “I have asked some of them, ‘If the Senate votes to acquit, what will you do to keep this president from getting worse?’ Their responses have been shrugs and sheepish looks.” Former US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch who was fired from her position by Trump because she stood in his way, also wrote an op-ed. Yovanovitch warned, “This administration, through acts of omission and commission, has undermined our democratic institutions, making the public question the truth and leaving public servants without the support and example of ethical behavior that they need to do their jobs and advance U.S. interests.”

Iowa Democratic Party authorities on Thursday released a close-to-final count of results from Monday’s caucuses showing that South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders were

FEATURING STEVEN ROSENFELD – Gerard Niemira, chief executive of the tech company Shadow responsible for Monday’s disastrous app failure, said on Wednesday, “We feel really terrible.” He added in an understatement, “I’m really disappointed that some of our technology created an issue that made the caucus difficult.” As more results from Monday’s Iowa caucuses were rolled out two days later, candidates Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders appeared to be the top two winners with Sanders garnering more votes and Buttigieg snagging more delegates. 

According to reports, the next caucus, to take place in Nevada, will now not be using the same app as Iowa. As New Hampshire’s primary approaches, what has the fallout of Iowa been and what does it bode for the coming elections? 

Steven Rosenfeld, Editor, Chief Correspondent & Senior Writing Fellow for Voting Booth a project of the Independent Media Institute. He spent the week reporting from Iowa.

FEATURING VICTOR PICKARD – There was a time when American journalism was considered the envy of the world. With a constitutionally guaranteed “freedom of the press,” journalism flourished and by and large, journalists showed a healthy skepticism of power and elites showed the press a modicum of respect. 

Today, as the term “fake news” is both a real phenomenon, and a weapon in the service of propagandists, it is harder for the public to tell what is truth and what is not. Journalism is essential to a democracy – can there be democracy without journalism? 

Victor Pickard, Associate Professor at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, and co-Director of Media, Inequality & Change Center. He has written widely about media, the news, communication, and democracy. His new book is Democracy Without Journalism? Confronting the Misinformation Society.

The US Senate on Wednesday afternoon voted to acquit President Donald Trump of the two articles of impeachment passed by the House. Republican Senator Mitt Romney became the only member of his party to vote against Trump saying in an exclusive interview with Fox News that he had to, “follow my conscience.” Romney explained, “I believe that the act he took, an effort to corrupt an election is as destructive an attack on the oath of office and our Constitution as I can imagine…It is a high crime and misdemeanor within the meaning of the Constitution, and that is not a decision I take lightly. It is the last decision I want to take.” The vote-tally on the article of impeachment over abuse of power was 52 for acquittal and 48 against. All 47 Democratic Senators voted for the articles together with Romney. Romney stayed with his party in voting to acquit Trump of charges of Obstruction of Congress with the resulting vote being 53 to 47. Earlier in the day, one of the other so-called “moderate” Republicans, Senator Susan Collins said she thought “it would be helpful” if Trump apologized for his behavior. Collins voted to acquit. Meanwhile hundreds of pro-impeachment protests are planned across the nation on Wednesday under the banner of “Reject the Coverup.”

On Tuesday evening President Donald Trump delivered his last State of the Union address before the November election. He became only the second president in history to deliver such an address while in the middle of an impeachment trial. As he arrived in the same chamber that just weeks ago had witnessed two votes to impeach him, Trump refused to take House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s outstretched hand. During his 80-minute speech the President did not mention his impeachment and instead spent much of his time touting a list of economic achievements he has laid claim to. He even denigrated the previous administration during his State of the Union address that he had dubbed “the Great American Comeback.” Several media outlets including Associated Press fact-checked the president’s speech which was predictably filled with exaggerations and outright lies. According to AP, Trump lied about immigration, about global oil and gas production, jobs, trade deals, the economy, dug pricing, manufacturing, healthcare, social security, and Medicare. 

The speech was filled with theatrics including the surprise tearful reunion of a US soldier with his wife, the announcement of an “opportunity grant” to a black 8-grader in an obvious nod to school privatization, and the awarding of the Presidential medal of freedom to right-wing shock jock Rush Limbaugh, his personal friend and stalwart cheerleader. It was the first time a president awarded the medal during a State of the Union address.

FEATURING STEVEN HASSAN – Former Congressman Joe Walsh, who has mounted a Republican primary challenge to Donald Trump that most of us have not heard about, has concluded that his party is now a cult in the grip of the President. He accused Republican lawmakers of giving in to Trump’s cultish leadership and said he has even gotten threats for challenging Trump in the primary.

Experts on cults agree that there is actually a disturbing parallel between how Trump addresses his supporters and how cult leaders manipulate their followers. Now, a leading cult expert has written a book about it called simply “The Cult of Trump.” Author Steven Hassan writes, “Donald Trump’s authoritarian tendencies, and the cultlike aspects of his presidency, have become to obvious to ignore.”

Steven Hassan, one of the nation’s leading experts on cults; he has helped people with destructive cults, mind control, brainwashing, parental alienation, estrangement, unethical hypnosis, abusive relationships, human trafficking, multi-level marketing, violent extremism & other forms of undue influence. He is the President and Founder of the Freedom of Mind Resource Center.

FEATURING JOHN BONIFAZ – The Iowa Democratic Party had one task this week which they spent months preparing for – carrying off the nation’s first primary without a hitch. 

But on Monday night as observers around the nation nervously watched for results to see if their favorite candidate would reign supreme, nothing was announced. 

Eventually the delays were attributed to a software app that had not been properly tested as party officials said they were checking the veracity of the results. The final results are expected late on Tuesday afternoon. 

John Bonifaz is the Co-Founder and President of Free Speech For People, co-author with Ron Fein and Ben Clements of The Constitution Demands It: The Case for the Impeachment of Donald Trump.

The Iowa Caucuses – the first primary race of the 2020 election – were an unmitigated disaster with no results being released on Monday night. As candidates, voters, journalists and observers from around the country waited with bated breath to find out who had won the most delegates, news spread that the Iowa Democratic Party was holding a meeting with candidate representatives to explain that the incoming results were being verified for “quality control.” The state party released a statement saying, “This is simply a reporting issue, the app did not go down and this is not a hack or an intrusion. The underlying data and paper trail is sound and will simply take time to further report the results.” As the hours passed on Monday night Mayor Pete Buttigieg took to the stage and claimed victory. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders also addressed his reporters. According to polls and some preliminary results Buttigieg and Sanders appeared to be the top two candidates in Iowa. Senator Elizabeth Warren is likely to be the third top candidate, with Joe Biden at what Warren’s campaign called, “a distant fourth.” As of this recording Iowa’s Democratic Party says results from the caucuses will be released Tuesday late afternoon. The LA Times reported that the app in question that precincts had trouble with on Monday night was developed by a company linked to those who worked for Hillary Clinton’s campaign in 2016. 

In other election-related news, President Donald Trump handily won the Republican Party’s Iowa caucuses with barely any challengers. Trump wasted no time in delighting in the Democratic Party’s Iowa caucus-confusion. He tweeted, referring to himself in the third person, “The only person that can claim a very big victory in Iowa last night is ‘Trump’.” Prominent right wing figures and media outlets actively pushed conspiracy theories to sow greater dissension among the Democratic Party ranks. GOP Senator Lindsey Graham tweeted disbelief that the problems with the Iowa Democratic Party Caucuses, “has nothing to do with a Bernie blowout and a Biden crash?” The next primary race takes place in New Hampshire on February 11th as a traditional election, and a new poll of that state’s voters by the Boston Globe and others confirmed an earlier poll showing Sanders at 24% compared to Biden at only 18%. 

The historic Senate impeachment trial of President Trump is coming to an end as House impeachment managers and Trump’s defense team finished their closing arguments Monday. On Tuesday Senators debated one another with some anno...

FEATURING LUKE READER – Just days after the European Union voted overwhelmingly to finalize Britain’s divorce, the architect of the Brexit plan, Nigel Farage is attending President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address this week. The Brexit referendum and Trump’s election took place just weeks apart and remain linked as right-wing nationalist forces in both the US and UK celebrate on-going victories. 

With Brexit to formally take effect soon, what will trade relations between the UK and US look like? And what sort of relationship will the UK maintain with the European Union? 

Luke Reader, teaches in the Department of History at Case Western University in Cleveland, Ohio.

FEATURING DIEGO INIGUEZ-LÓPEZ – President Donald Trump’s administration has just announced an expansion of its 2017 travel ban, adding 6 new countries to the list of those restricted from emigrating to the US. All 6 nations are from the global south and four are from Africa. People from Nigeria, Sudan, Tanzania, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, and Myanmar will now face severe restrictions from arriving to the US. Based on fears of the spread of the new coronavirus Trump has also temporarily restricted travelers from China. 

The President is expected to use his travel ban – affirmed by the Supreme Court – as a rallying point for his reelection. Critics have slammed the President’s move, saying it was yet another racist and xenophobic policy. 

Diego Iniguez-López, Policy and Campaigns Manager with National Partnership for New Americans.

The House impeachment team and President Donald Trump’s impeachment defense team delivered closing arguments on Monday in what is expected to be the tail end of a historic Senate trial. A vote on whether to acquit Trump is expected to take place on Wednesday afternoon. Representative Adam Schiff of California who heads the House impeachment team said this among his closing remarks. The closing arguments come after Senators voted narrowly on Friday 51 to 49 to prevent witnesses from testifying. Several Senators admitted that Trump engaged in wrongdoing in his pursuit of personal political gain through Ukraine, but insisted that the conduct was not impeachable.

President Trump on Tuesday is expected to deliver his 2020 State of the Union address. A White House official revealed that the theme of the speech is “The Great American Comeback,” and that the President will share his “vision for relentless optimism.” Trump is only the second president in the history of the nation to deliver a State of the Union address while in the middle of an impeachment trial (Bill Clinton was the first). Some Democrats are planning a protest of Trump’s speech with female lawmakers reportedly coordinating their wardrobes to wear white, while others are planning to boycott. 

The speech will come a day after the Iowa caucuses take place – the first primary decision of this election year. The last poll expected to be released ahead of the caucuses, done by CNN, was abruptly canceled after candidate Pete Buttigieg’s campaign asserted that his name had accidentally been left off some surveys. The latest poll conducted prior to that one showed Senator Bernie Sanders in the lead, 7 points ahead of former Vice President Joe Biden. A new poll of New Hampshire conducted just hours before the Iowa caucuses also shows Sanders in the lead in that state, also 7 points ahead of Biden. However, a Huffington Post/YouGov nationwide survey asked voters who they thought would end up winning the Democratic Party’s nomination and found that 43% expected Biden to cinch it, compared to 17% who expected Sanders as the nominee. The Washington Post on Monday published a detailed investigation of donors to Democratic candidates and found that Sanders, “was the standout Democratic presidential fundraiser of 2019, with 1.4 million donors from across the country.” Republicans are also caucusing in Iowa on Monday but with Trump running for reelection, challengers like former House Representative Joe Walsh don’t stand a chance. Mr. Walsh lamented, “My party is a cult.