Trump impeachment news: President accused of turning 'America first' into 'Donald Trump first' as Senate trial resumes

Adam Schiff asks if Donald Trump 'was fighting corruption, why would he hide it from us?'

Donald Trump has reacted angrily after House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff laid out the case against him in the first opening statement of the impeachment trial on Wednesday, accusing the president of orchestrating a “corrupt scheme” to extort a domestic political favour from Ukraine.

While Mr Schiff’s speech was praised by Democrats, Republicans in the chamber made a point of looking visibly bored by his extensive presentation of the evidence, prompting CNN anchor Chris Cuomo to remind them they should be “doing their damn job” and focusing on principle, not party, and MSNBC’s Chris Hayes invited them to resign.

After sending out a record-breaking 142 tweets yesterday, President Trump has continued to fight the messaging war on Thursday and revived his attack on 2020 Democratic candidate Michael Bloomberg, branding him a “clown” and saying his campaign is a “hopeless” waste of money.

Mr Bloomberg's response: "Obsessed much? It shouldn't be this easy to distract the President of the United States."

During Thursday's proceedings in the president's impeachment trial, now on its fourth day, Texas Senator Ted Cruz made a sort of impeachment drinking game — with milk. Mr Cruz said that every time the prosecution says "drug deal" or "get over it", "drink a shot of milk!"

The normal milk drinking followed Mr Schiff's derisive opening comments about Senate Republicans who appeared to have difficulty being silent for hours.

House Judiciary chairman Jerrold Nadler made the case that the president abused the power of the executive office with a "Donald Trump first" agenda that placed "his own personal political interests first."

Meanwhile, the White House is imposing new rules on pregnant women travelling to the country as the administration rails against "birth tourism", or giving birth in the US so that the child can obtain US citizenship.

The State Department did not make it clear how one would know a person is pregnant. The rules would deny visa applications when the traveller's "primary purpose" is to obtain American citizenship for their child by giving birth in the country.

Follow live coverage as it happened:

Key Points

• Trump labels Michael Bloomberg a 'clown' after attacking Adam Schiff
• Schiff lays out impeachment evidence in 'tour de force' speech
• Republican senators told to 'do their damn job' after expressing boredom
• Democrats rule out Hunter Biden-John Bolton witness deal
• Fox legal expert says evidence for Trump's conviction 'ample'

[23 January 2020 18:25 · Clark Mindock]

Drink up! Milk becomes a viral story from the drab impeachment hearing

If you've been paying attention online, senators have been catching the eye of reporters for bringing glasses of milk out onto the Senate floor. While this might seem like an odd group love of the white stuff, it actually has a history dating back to 1966.

At that time, former senator Everett Dirksen of Illinois asked if he might get a glass of milk, and if it violated the Senate rules. He was told it did not, and so a page ran to a nearby restaurant and brought him a glass. With that, the rule of "Milk while speaking" was born.

Now, the same rules are applied to the impeachment hearing. And senator Ted Cruz is turning the viral story into a drinking game:

[23 January 2020 18:55 · Clark Mindock]

Marianne Williamson endorses Andrew Yang in Iowa (sort of)

The spiritual guru and former presidential candidate said she is throwing her support behind Mr Yang ahead of the Iowa caucuses, but notably has not given the long-shot presidential candidate her full-on support.

Ms Williamson said in a series of Instagram posts on Wednesday night that she also likes Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, but that she would be appearing with Mr Yang instead.

Why? Well, she said she likes his "self-confidence, levity and positivity" which she said are "exactly what America has lost and needs to regain."

[23 January 2020 19:25 · Clark Mindock]

Trump Jr makes bashing a 16-year-old a family affair

After Greta Thunberg criticized world leaders in Davos, Swizterland this week for an inadequate response to climate change and its human and economic dangers, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he wouldn't listen to her until she got a degree in economics.

Now, the president's adult son has piled on to attack Ms Thunberg, who Mr Trump has also made a point of deriding previously.

[23 January 2020 19:55 · Clark Mindock]

Trump's 'birth tourism' rule, explained

Here's our write-up on the birth tourism rule just announced by the White House. Take a look:

[23 January 2020 20:04 · Clark Mindock]

Trump leaves for Florida

From The Independent's Washington DC bureau chief John T Bennett, at the White House: Trump ignored reporters’ questions as he departed the White House for a Republican Party event in Florida — even though longtime New York adversary Nadler had just spent an hour calling for his removal.

[23 January 2020 20:25 · Clark Mindock]

Obsessed much? Bloomberg attacks Trump

Trump loves to lash out on Twitter. And the former New York City mayor returned the favor.

[23 January 2020 20:55 · Clark Mindock]

EPA unveils replacement for Obama-era clean water rule

The Environmental Protection Agency has unveiled a new rule that critics say will eliminate some protections established by the Obama administration to reduce pollution in smaller waterways before it can get into larger sources.

The Waters of the United States rule that was crafted under Barack Obama's presidency and had been criticized by famers and other groups for requiring them to protect relatively small bodies of water on their land — and expand the amount of land subject to federal oversight.

[23 January 2020 21:25 · Clark Mindock]

En-route to Florida, Mr Trump has begun tweeting

So far, he's tweeted some local Republican primary poll results, and launched into fresh attacks on his potential 2020 rivals.

[23 January 2020 21:55 · Clark Mindock]

Republicans bank on constituents not paying attention

Iowa senator Joni Ernst told Bloomberg News that she has no worries that the impeachment trial will hurt her bid for re-election later this year, telling that news outlet: "Bring it on!"

She continued, saying that she wants the trial to be "wrapped up", and that she doesn't expect people to be paying much attention back home.

"I don't think constituents in Iowa are watching it now, honest-to-goodness," she said.

[23 January 2020 22:43 · Alex Woodward]

As Democrats prepare for the New Hampshire primary, the second round of votes cast for the nominee, Donald Trump will be there. True!

Bernie Sanders is currently in a decent lead ahead of the Democratic front runners according to polls in that state. Mr Trump has recently been targeting Mr Sanders, apparently seeing the Vermont senator as a threat.

The president also shared a chart of head-to-head chances between the nominees and Mr Trump — but it conveniently cropped out the chances between him and Mr Sanders. One recent survey had Mr Sanders easily defeating the president by 9 points.