There will be 24 hours of presentation by House Impeachment Managers (over 3 days); 24 hours of presentation by Defense team (over 3 days); 16 hours of Senate questioning; 4 hours of closing arguments, equally divided; open Senate deliberations/speeches; and a final vote on the articles of impeachment.
UPDATE:  After a series of defeated Democrat amendments, the Senate evening procedural session ends at 8:00pm with the following outcome:

• Monday: 11:00am closing arguments by House Managers and Defense (two hours each for a total of four hours); then the senate, regular session, floor speeches begin.
• Tuesday: 11:00am full day of floor speeches.  Each Senator limited to ten minutes.
• Wednesday: 4:00pm – A final vote on the articles of impeachment.

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Earlier today the federal Coronavirus Task Force established by President Trump held a press conference to explain the U.S. response status and answer media questions.
The task force is being led by HHS Secretary Alex Azar and includes:  Dr. Robert Redfield, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health; Ken Cuccinelli, Acting Deputy Secretary, Department of Homeland Security; Matthew Pottinger, Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor.
[Video and Transcript Below]

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[Transcript] – SECRETARY AZAR: Well, good afternoon, everyone. I’m Alex Azar, Secretary of Health and Human Services, and Chairman of the President’s Task Force on the Novel Coronavirus.

I’m going to start by turning things over to Dr. Robert Redfield, the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to discuss the current situation on the novel coronavirus. Dr. Redfield.

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The Senate voted 51-49 on a motion to support prior constitutional precedent and avoid further witness testimony in the Senate.  Republican Senators Susan Collins and Mitt Romney voted with Democrats to break constitutional framework and support witness testimony in the Senate that did not originate from House impeachment process.

Senators are now recessed for dinner while holding meetings within their caucus to debate next steps.  A disagreement within the republican caucus seems to be framed around Senators wishing to have debate time to present their own personal positions on the Senate floor prior to a final vote to remove or acquit President Trump.
One likely scenario is a vote on a resolution tonight outlining next steps, open to amendment and voting; then recess for the evening around 9pm, and a return at 11:00am Monday.  That would position a final acquittal vote for Wednesday.

• Friday night: A Senate vote organizing a resolution for the following:
• Monday: Closing arguments by House Managers and Defense.
• Tuesday: Open deliberations. Senators speak.
• Wednesday: A vote on the articles of impeachment

The situation is fluid.

Democrat presidential candidate Bernie Sanders now leads most polls in the key states where the democrat primary battle will begin. With the grassroots Bernie-AOC wing carrying all the enthusiasm and momentum time is running out for the DNC club.
Factually I would argue that Bernie has always led in the polls, but party operatives in alignment with the apparatus of media have manipulated the media poll outcomes in an effort to steer the chosen narrative from the DNC boardroom.  It’s just how they roll.
CTH uses alternate matrices to gauge support, including monitoring social media and looking for the club’s traditional Astroturf fingerprints. That said, the dynamic within the factional Democrat party is now quite remarkable.   Despite the transparent hit-jobs by DNC operatives against him, Bernie is in position to win every early state and he has a clear and visible path to the nomination.   But the club has made some conspicuous counter moves.
The DNC club, the establishment writ large, has tried to advance several candidates to offset the rise of the far-left Democrat-Socialists within the Bernie-AOC group.  Their latest effort, aided by their media conscripts was (and is) Elizabeth Warren.  However, it ain’t working.  The more they attempt to help Warren, the more transparent it is.  Inauthentic ‘wokeness’ doesn’t work, Bernie has withstood the effort.
But watch out.
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We can see the basic outline of how a fraudulent impeachment scheme was constructed through an alliance of operatives in the National Security Council (NSC) and staff in the House committees. Our nation is currently dealing with the consequences.  However, if  we go back to Nancy Pelosi’s December 2018 rule changes, there is clear forethought.
It now looks like the Lawfare network constructed the ‘whistle-blower’ complaint aka a Schiff Dossier, and handed it to allied CIA operative Eric Ciaramella to file as a formal IC complaint.  This process is almost identical to the Fusion-GPS/Lawfare network handing the Steele Dossier to the FBI to use as the evidence for the 2016/2017 Russia conspiracy.

NSC resistance member Alexander Vindman constructs a false story about the Trump-Zelenskyy phone call; he shares the false story with CIA operative Eric Ciaramella (a John Brennan resistance associate and former NSC member).  Ciaramella then makes contact with resistance allies Sean Misko & Mary McCord working within the HPSCI.
Mary McCord (former DOJ-NSD and current Lawfare) then helps Eric Ciaramella create a fraudulent intelligence community whistle-blower complaint to submit to her former DOJ-NSD lawyer, now Intel Inspector General, ICIG Michael Atkinson.
…And that’s how this entire Impeachment operation gets started.
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After taking the night to consider the issues at hand, senator Lisa Murkowski announces she will not support a call for further witness testimony.  It appears the primary concern for Murkowski was her ‘yea’ vote creating a 50/50 split; and she anticipates Democrats attempting to manipulate further rules forcing Chief Justice Roberts to be the deciding factor.  Murkowski stated: “I will not stand for nor support that effort.”
Posting to her Facebook Page the Alaska Senator writes:

“I worked for a fair, honest, and transparent process, modeled after the Clinton trial, to provide ample time for both sides to present their cases, ask thoughtful questions, and determine whether we need more.
The House chose to send articles of impeachment that are rushed and flawed. I carefully considered the need for additional witnesses and documents, to cure the shortcomings of its process, but ultimately decided that I will vote against considering motions to subpoena.

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There will be 24 hours of presentation by House Impeachment Managers (over 3 days); 24 hours of presentation by Defense team (over 3 days); 16 hours of Senate questioning; 4 hours of closing arguments, equally divided; and a Senate debate/vote on further motions to include witnesses. If there are going to be witnesses, they will first be deposed prior to testimony. No witness testimony will be permitted without first being deposed.
The Senate Trial continues today on day ten at 1:00pm ET. Today next steps will be debated to include anticipated motions for additional witnesses, closing statements, and possibly a vote on removal or acquittal (depending on witness motions).
Fox News Livestream Link – CSPAN Liveestream Link –

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I think it is fair to say: no individual has worked harder for this day than Britain’s Nigel Farage. Without his relentless work to organize voters to remove the U.K. from the European Union; and then to organize again -three years later-  to break the Brexit stalemate in Parliament; this momentous day would not have arrived.  [Tweet]

(Via Daily Mail) Boris Johnson will deliver a plea for the country to move on from Brexit as the UK finally leaves the EU tonight.
In an address to be broadcast shortly before Britain’s departure at [11pm U.K. / 6pm U.S. ET], the Prime Minister will insist that Brexit marks ‘not an end but a beginning’.

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As we start to head deeper into the 2020 presidential election year, there is some very good news for President Trump about how Americans rate their satisfaction; and some very bad news for Democrats who are trying to impeach this success.
According to the latest data from Gallup: “Americans’ average satisfaction rating for the 27 issues Gallup has tracked consistently since 2001 is now 47%. This is up three points from a year ago and is the highest since the January 2005 poll.”
In the measures of satisfaction covering the first three years of President Trump in office there are some remarkable increases in key measures:

(data link)

As President Trump prepares to deliver his State of the Union speech to congress, these results will likely provide some measurable data for him to highlight.  Satisfaction with the U.S. economy has jumped a whopping 22 percent since President Trump took office.
As noted above, the economy, national security, military and state of race relations all provide double-digit increases in American satisfaction during President Trump’s first three years in office.
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In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the Donald Trump Administration and Presidency.

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

President Trump Twitter @POTUS / Vice President Pence Twitter @VP

Stephanie Grisham Twitter @StephGrisham45