THE RACE TO THE WHITE HOUSE

The Democratic primary is getting real

There’s less than two weeks until the Iowa Democratic caucuses, and frontrunner Joe Biden has a powerful weapon in his fight against Bernie Sanders: House Democrats in vulnerable swing districts, whose victories in the 2018 midterms were key to winning back Democratic control of the House.

Biden campaigned hard for them during the midterms, and now they’re endorsing him at a rapid clip — he has more endorsements from these swing-district Democrats than anyone else in the field. And some of them are saying a Sanders nomination would make their re-election even harder.

“I think that if Bernie Sanders is our nominee, it’ll make a lot of these Trump districts that we picked up extremely competitive and probably does put our House majority in jeopardy,” California Rep. Ami Bera said. He co-chairs the Democratic National Committee’s Frontline program, which supports vulnerable House Democrats.

In other Democratic primary news from the long weekend: Pete Buttigieg’s supporters in Iowa are puzzling over his lack of popularity among black voters, and Sanders says being a woman can be an obstacle to getting elected — but so can being old, or young, and “everybody brings some negatives.”

BuzzFeed News

THE ROYAL TEA

Prince Harry spoke spoke publicly for the first time since the announcement he and Meghan were stepping back as frontline royals

"The decision that I have made for my wife and I to step back is not one I made lightly. It was so many months of talks after so many years of challenges," he said at an event for an AIDS charity he set up in 2006 in honor of his late mother, Princess Diana. "And I know I haven't always gotten it right, but as far as this goes, there really was no other option.”

On Saturday, Buckingham Palace announced the details of how the couple will step back from their roles. They’ll no longer use their “royal highness” titles, although they’ll still be known as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. They’ll still have Frogmore House, on the grounds of Windsor Castle, as their UK residence, but they’ll have to pay rent. Royal millennials: they’re just like us!

Are you as obsessed with this story as we are? We made a newsletter that will deliver you all the royals news as soon as we have it. It’s called The Royal Tea (get it?), and you can sign up here.

TRUMP’S TRIAL

The Senate impeachment trial of Donald Trump gets going today

The opening days will be spent debating exactly how the trial will work, and on Monday Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell released details of how he plans to run the show. The rules of the trial can be passed with 51 Senate votes, meaning Republicans can push them through without Democratic support.

Here’s how McConnell proposes it will all go down, according to Hayes Brown, host of our Impeachment Today podcast: It’s mostly based on how Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial went down back in January, 1999. The two sides will have 24 hours each to present their arguments, split over two days. Things start at 1 p.m. each day, meaning Senators are in for some late nights.

Then there’s 16 hours of question time, and once that’s over, there’s a vote on whether new witnesses or evidence can be introduced. That’s when the big questions begin: will Senate Republicans allow Democrats to call witnesses to testify, or introduce evidence from the House impeachment proceedings? It’s still up in the air.

If you want the latest, you can listen to this morning's Impeachment Today episode online here — or check it out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

IN OTHER NEWS

Thousands of people showed up for a pro-gun rally in Richmond, Virginia. Authorities had warned of threats of violence from hate groups and militias, but the protest remained peaceful. The rally was organized by the Virginia Citizens Defense League, and is held every year on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, to advocate for gun rights.

Puerto Ricans are furious after discovering large amounts of badly needed emergency aid has been sitting unused in a warehouse for years. Footage of the aid, including pallets of drinking water, diapers and generators, went viral online, and the Governor of Puerto Rico has fired the US territory's emergency management director in response.

The National Archives has apologized for altering a photo of the 2017 Women’s March to blur out signs that criticized President Trump. Initially it said the blurring, in an exhibition on the women’s suffrage movement, was done to avoid "political controversy," but in a statement on Saturday the museum said it "made a mistake."

A viral video titled “Truth from an Iranian” blew up on Facebook following the killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani. But one thing that wasn’t made clear in the video: the speaker is a registered lobbyist who has previously worked on behalf of a militia attempting to seize control of Libya.

Hank Azaria will no longer be the voice of Apu on The Simpsons. A 2018 documentary, The Problem With Apu, brought more attention to complaints that the character is a hurtful racist stereotype. “I won't be doing the voice anymore,” Azaria said on Friday, although the future of Apu Nahasapeemapetilon and his place on the show is unclear.

THE MUELLER MEMOS

There’s been another drop of secret memos from former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

BuzzFeed News sued the US government for access to all the records produced by the Trump-Russia investigation; those documents are now being released on a rolling basis, and we got a new batch last week.

Among the highlights: Former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort, now serving a seven-year prison sentence, had his lawyer speak with Fox News host Sean Hannity in January 2018. He considered Hannity an “outlet to the public and the White House.” This is one of many places Hannity shows up throughout the Mueller memos.

Another one: “The excitement was palpable” when Russians learned that Carter Page was involved in the Trump campaign in mid-2016, said Denis Klimentov, who is associated with the New Economic School in Russia.

You can read a full summary of this batch of Mueller memos here.

Stay warm out there,

Tom