The Morning Dispatch: Breaking Down Senate Republicans’ Impeachment Votes

Plus, is it just us, or are things suddenly looking really bad for Joe Biden?

By The Dispatch Staff

Feb 6, 2020

Happy Thursday! Your Morning Dispatchers swapped roles today, with Andrew newly back from Iowa and Declan taking off for New Hampshire. Look forward to hearing reports from him in the days ahead.

Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories

The Senate voted to acquit President Trump, 52-48 and 53-47, on both charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress related to his pressuring the Ukrainian government to announce investigations into Joe and Hunter Biden and the Democratic National Committee.
Nevertheless, the Ukraine saga is far from played out, as both Republicans and Democrats signaled Wednesday they plan to soldier on investigating alleged misconduct: House Democrats by continuing to seek testimony from former National Security Adviser John Bolton, Senate Republicans by continuing to investigate Hunter Biden.
The Commerce Department reported Wednesday that the ongoing trade war with China has shrunk our trade deficit with the country by nearly $75 billion since 2018—but that the total international trade deficit for goods and services has remained steady at just north of $1 trillion, showing that U.S. importers have simply moved from buying from China to buying from other markets, notably Europe.

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Butch Earl 3 years ago

"Buttigieg, who generally outperformed Sanders outside Iowa’s biggest cities"
Do Democrats have enough situational awareness to realize this is what they need to do to win against Trump and avoid turning their electoral college neurosis into psychosis? We'll see.
David French is right about Butigieg being to the left of left on religious liberty issues. This could yet again put the "What about the judges?" issue up the priority list for us Trump skeptical conservatives. We'll see.

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Pat Riot 3 years ago

The "what about the judges" people are going to vote Trump regardless. I suspect they are outnumbered by the "what about my portfolio" people. Neither are necessary for a Democrat win though.

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HCG4 3 years ago

About the "presented without comment" section... The way it's 'presented' it looks like Arif Hasan posted that. But that's a Jonathan Capehart (WAPO) column that Hasan tweeted out and then shredded.

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CynthiaW 3 years ago

I agree, that was really muddled.

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Alex Mudd 3 years ago

Great Morning Dispatch – the Arrested Development analogy was a good one and the GOP senators floating heads infographic made me laugh out loud in my cubicle (smiling Romney in his box all alone is simultaneously hilarious and heartbreaking). Thanks for the summation of positions.

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Declan Garvey 3 years ago Staff

Thanks for reading Alex!

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berkcats 3 years ago

It is a very sad state of affairs when a person following his conscience has to say that part of his decision was to weigh whether or not he and his family could handle the inevitable criticism and hatred his not following the crowd would draw. Jr's immediate comment provided the first example. There should have been 100 people wrestling with conscience and perhaps there were but it seems strange that only one ended up voting outside of strict party lines.

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CynthiaW 3 years ago

"whether or not he and his family could handle the inevitable criticism and hatred"

If Mitt Romney, with his position, his wealth, his strong family and cohesive community, can't take a stand, then nobody ever will. Good heavens, it was a token vote, anyway, not the tie-breaker!

It reminds me of J.K. Rowling's standing up for biological reality against the denier mob: if she can't, who can?

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Kevin Durant? 3 years ago

“Comparing Bernie Sanders’s ideology to Trump’s is just comparing socialism-medium to socialism-lite: “Polls show that Republican voters are widely opposed to socialism… Yet what are Medicare and Social Security except socialist programs limited by age requirements.”
—————————————
There is nothing ‘medium’ about Bernie’s version and there is nothing ‘lite’ about Trump’s version or the version we’ve been stuck with decades

The aging “keep your government hands off my Medicare” crowd has always been a barrier to a non-bankrupt future and every Republican in my life has always engaged in extremely vague and annoying pandering about “protecting Social Security” to guard themselves from the wrath of the olds

This is where my plan of Social Security putting ‘amount paid in’ vs. ‘amount paid out’ in the memo of each check they mail. This seems to be one area where “raising awareness” is actually necessary

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Theirn Scott 3 years ago

But, there is no check anymore. :-)

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Kevin Durant? 3 years ago

And the food stamps need to be actual stamps :)

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Kevin Durant? 3 years ago

Sorry my plan includes bringing back physical checks too
😂😂

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Pat Riot 3 years ago

Partisans need a good divisive issue to get their voters riled up, but the reality of the situation is that the modern American economic system started in the 1930s *is* our system and the only thing left is debating the nuances of its operation. Calling it names like "socialism" isn't going to change anything.

The most extreme Democrat, Bernie, is calling for what is a *tweak* of this system--but it's still the same system (and the other "hands off my" crowd are the millions with private insurance so that's not going anywhere either).

We all fought the Great Ideology Wars back in the 1980s and before when the USSR and China were fighting us over our Capitalism with their Communism.

That war is over. Now it's the West's mixed economies versus two nuclear-armed criminal syndicates who want to rip us off. There's absolutely no "ideology" in play here anymore.

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Kevin Durant? 3 years ago

“The most extreme Democrat, Bernie, is calling for what is a *tweak* of this system”
—————————-
False. Bernie is not calling for a *tweak*

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Pat Riot 3 years ago

What would be *fundamentally* different even *if* Bernie were somehow to enact everything he wants? A program we've had for the last 80 years (Medicare) being expanded from 30% of Americans to 100% of Americans? That's a tweak.

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Kevin Durant? 3 years ago

Sir, this is not what the word ‘tweak’ means
😂😂

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Pat Riot 3 years ago

more replies

Ray Salemi 3 years ago

I have to say that I’m in the “do not remove” camp.

I think we’d all be hurt by Trump supporters believing that they would have won the election if not for being robbed of a candidate. It’s better for all of us to let the Republicans receive the spanking they have earned.

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JonathanRRogers 3 years ago

Though I am most sympathetic to Romney's position, I share your concern that removing Trump by impeachment may have polarized Americans even more than we already are. I wish I shared your confidence that Trump won't be reelected.

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Nathan 3 years ago

I laughed out loud at "'Mitt should be expelled from the @SenateGOP conference,' tweeted Donald Trump Jr., who recently published a book titled Triggered: How the Left Thrives on Hate and Wants to Silence Us."

Good work.

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Declan Garvey 3 years ago Staff

Seemed important to highlight...thanks for reading!

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Theirn Scott 3 years ago

After Mitt's vote yesterday I was thinking that perhaps Mormons have a more developed conscience....then I read about his niece. Oh, well.

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Kevin Atkinson 3 years ago

I am very conflicted about voting for Gardner in November. On the one hand, he was in a tough spot, a lot of Colorado is rural, and he can't upset the Trump base here and still win. On the other side, we have a huge moderate population. I think I would vote for him if he had been in the "it was wrong, but not impeachable" group.

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John D. Wright 3 years ago

I really appreciate the breakdown on the senators. A format list of names would be handy. I want to be sure to separate the stupid from the cowardly.

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Theirn Scott 3 years ago

I agree. That last sentence is "perfect."

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