Some Republican senators are still hopeful that key Republican senators may change their minds on the witness vote after the 16-hour question period that starts tomorrow, with many using the line the trial is “still fluid.”https://t.co/L9gtLup3XL
NEW: Trump’s impeachment defense often seemed less about convincing senators to acquit than exacting payback on political adversaries he perceives at having landed him on trial in the first place.
Trump begins by accurately reciting some economic stats, such as that New Jersey's unemployment rate is at a record low; the USMCA; and the death of al-Baghdadi, whose demise gets big cheers and a U-S-A chant.
Trump says Soleimani was “actively planning new attacks.” (He's dropped most of the language about imminence.) He singles out Pelosi and Sanders with disparaging nicknames for opposing the killing of Soleimani.
Trump vows to sign up “millions and millions of registered independents” and “Democrat voters,” voters he suggests, I think, are disgusted by impeachment.
Trump hails local Rep. Jeff Van Drew, who's standing beside him, for switching from the Democratic to Republican party. He says Van Drew defied “the left-wing fanatics in his own party” by doing so.
Van Drew is giving a speech praising Trump. He says that this election is a choice of whether America will be “just be like any other nation in the world” or, with Trump, “great.”
Trump claims there are “tens of thousands” of supporters outside — it does seem like an unusually big overflow, but not sure of the number yet — then bashes “the fakers” of the media, then complains that Elizabeth Warren once got praise for the size of a rally crowd.
Trump tells people they have to vote Republican in the fall to “get rid of these clowns.”
Trump calls up senior aide Kellyanne Conway, a New Jersey native, to cheers. She gives a speech praising him. She says, “Two new trade deals, two Supreme Court justices, two dead terrorists — that's two terms!”
Trump says “we have a more inclusive party.” It's not clear what he means by “inclusive” or what he is comparing it to. He adds, “The Republican Party: respected again.”
Trump is listing some economic accomplishments, some of which are correct and some of which I'm still trying to fact check. (Most of them seem to be coming from his Council of Economic Advisers, which hasn't released detailed data on some of the claims.)
Trump refers to “Barack Hussein Obama” while talking about median household income. He didn't do the middle name thing for a long while, then brought it back late last year.
Trump exaggerates household income growth during his tenure, saying it's “almost $10,000.” He has taken a number of about $5,000 pre-tax, from firm Sentier Research, and added another $5,000 for nonsensical reasons.
Trump boasts that he “ended the war on American energy,” then says the US is “now” the world's #1 producer of oil and natural gas.
As always: the US took the #1 spot in 2012 under Obama, according to the government's Energy Information Administration, and stayed there.
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Trump has moved on from his economic boasts to his usual attack on sanctuary cities and Democrats' immigration positions — as usual giving a local example of someone who was arrested, not handed over to ICE, and then committed more crimes.
Trump glitches in the middle of some rant about criminals and you can hear a Fox News host laughing at him on a hot mic.
They'll never admit it publicly, but behind closed doors and off the air, they all laugh because they know he's a fucking clown.pic.twitter.com/6sN9DncjY0
Trump boasts of reducing illegal border crossings for seven straight months. That's correct — but he's starting the clock at the highest point of his presidency. https://t.co/J6WQoM3CXWpic.twitter.com/Lj5WdCX62I
Trump: “Mexico is in fact — you will soon find out — paying for the wall. OK? You know?…No, the wall is ultimately, and very nicely, being paid for by Mexico.” I don't know what he's talking about, and, as usual, he's not explaining.
Trump calls Democrats “crazy,” attacking Sanders and his followers for proposing a health care plan that would get rid of (most) private insurance.
Trump repeats his egregious lie about pre-existing conditions: “We are protecting people with pre-existing conditions, and we will always will, the Republican Party, pre-existing conditions. We saved it.”
Trump his telling his imaginary sir story, a lie, about how he was “so smart” and invented the concept of Veterans Choice during the last campaign but was told people had unsuccessfully tried to get just such a program passed for 45 years. Obama signed it into law in 2014.
Trump refers to “this clown governor of California.”
Attacking Democrats, Trump says, “Look at what's happening to their cities.” An interesting “their.”
Trump: “I've done it all. I've achieved more than I promised. I never told you about Space Force. We got Space Force.”
Trump: “For years you've been losing your ass with 401(k)s. Now you're making a fortune.”
Trump, as usual, falsely claims to have eliminated the estate tax. His tax law significantly increased the threshold for having to pay it, but it's not gone.
Trump: “I never even knew the swamp was this bad. Swamp is bad. Bad people. A lot of bad people in the swamp. Bad people in the swamp.” There is a Drain The/That Swamp chant. “We got a lot of bad people in that swamp, that swamp, those swamp creatures, they are all over.”
An egregious lie from Trump: after vowing to end the AIDS epidemic in America, he says this process could've been started by the last administration, but “they chose not to do it — I chose to do it.” The Obama administration provided billions in funding for HIV/AIDS research.
Trump jut claimed that the Obama administration “chose not to” try to end the AIDS epidemic. Here's a fact check of this claim from the last time he said it: the Obama administration spent $10.8 billion on domestic HIV/AIDS research alone between the 2013 and 2016 fiscal years.
Trump has concluded. Mostly on script, some of the usual fave lies, nothing much new.
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NEW: President Trump's personal attorney @RudyGiuliani called John Bolton a “backstabber” and told @CBS_Herridge he doesn't think the former national security adviser should testify in the Senate impeachment trial.
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