The attack came seemingly out of the blue.

Former Vice President Joe Biden isn't bashful about the reason he's running for president.Biden, though not bereft of policy plans, isn't leading a specific "movement" like some of his Democratic competitors, namely Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). In that sense, there doesn't appear to have been an ideological motivation that spurred the 77-year-old's decision to jump into the crowded Democratic primary last year, except for defeating the incumbent, President Trump, The New York Times reports.In fact, Biden reportedly told the Times while campaigning in Iowa before the state's caucus kicks off the election process next week that he likely wouldn't even have launched a campaign if someone like Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) was the one seeking re-election, amplifying Biden's message that Democrats and Republicans need not be in a state of "perpetual war" in a post-Trump America. It's Trump, and Trump alone, that compelled former President Barack Obama's right hand man to take one last crack at the Oval Office. Read more at The New York Times.More stories from theweek.com John Bolton just vindicated Nancy Pelosi It's 2020 and women are exhausted Stephen Colbert's Late Show rings in 'The Age of Impeachment' with a groovy song

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said the information coming out surrounding the articles of impeachment is reminiscent of the Watergate scandal.

Ukraine’s former national security council chairman said that he left the Volodymyr Zelensky administration after becoming  “uncomfortable” with American efforts to coerce the opening of politically advantageous investigations.Oleksandr Danylyuk, speaking with The Daily Beast in his first on-the-record interview since President Trump’s impeachment began, directly contradicted December comments made by Andriy Yermak, a top Zelensky aide, who said “we never had that feeling” that a holdup in U.S. military aide was tied to the requested investigations.Danyluk said the request, which was detailed during the House’s impeachment inquiry by ambassador to the E.U. Gordon Sondland, “rattled” Zelensky’s team which had worked through a draft for Ukrainian-American cooperation that “at its core" prioritized national security.“It was a panic,” the Ukrainian said. “. . . This roadmap should have been the substance.”The former official also detailed how he met and enjoyed a good relationship with former national security adviser John Bolton.“I would say it was definitely John who I trusted,” Danylyuk said. “I think John, because we worked together on trying to set up an official framework for a U.S.-Ukraine relationship.”Danyluk also said he asked Bolton about the aid holdup on September 1 in Warsaw as Vice President Mike Pence was meeting with Zelensky but "never got an answer."The Warsaw meeting became a central part of the Trump impeachment inquiry when Sondland said in his revised testimony in November that both a White House meeting and the military aid were contingent on the announcement of an anti-corruption probe into Burisma, the firm that employed Hunter Biden.“I now recall speaking individually with Mr. Yermak [at the meeting], where I said that resumption of U.S. aid would likely not occur until Ukraine provided the public anti-corruption statement that we had been discussing for many weeks,” Sondland said at the time.Yermak, however, then denied the conversation ever took place in an interview.“Gordon and I were never alone together. We bumped into each other in the hallway next to the escalator, as I was walking out,” he told Time on the Warsaw meeting. “I remember – everything is fine with my memory – we talked about how well the meeting went. That’s all we talked about.”Yermak added that the Ukrainians “did not have the feeling that this aid was connected to any one specific issue.”

Kelly served as a close adviser to President Trump for 18 months.

"CBS Evening News" anchor Norah O'Donnell spoke to four impeachment defense surrogates, Representatives Mark Meadows, Doug Collins, Elise Stefanik and Debbie Lesko. They addressed the impeachment trial of President Trump, new claims surrounding John Bolton and whether Republicans could face "political repercussions" for breaking with the president.

Republican senators began Monday in a bad spot. They ended it feeling like they were in a better one, at least for now. What changed? A late-morning pep talk from Senate Majority Leader McConnell and a rousing argument from White House defense attorney Alan Dershowitz that gave many Republican senators the answer to the key question of the day: Why shouldn't John Bolton testify in the impeachment trial?

The impeachment trial is approaching a volatile and unpredictable stage as President Donald Trump's defense team wrapped up its opening argument Tuesday, and the outcome of a looming vote on whether to call witnesses remains uncertain.