Donald Trump said he would rather run against Michael Bloomberg than new Democratic frontrunner Bernie Sanders – and suggested the US military punish an Army officer who testified against him during House Democrats' impeachment inquiry.As the 2020 race heats up, the president said he wants to face Mr Sanders because "Bernie has real followers," taking a backhanded swipe at the former New York City mayor before taking a direct one when he accused Mr Bloomberg of "buying his way in" to the Democratic nominating process.

The comments came days after the star impeachment witness was ousted from the White House.

Democrats apparently don't think an angry presidential tweet should reverse the entire prosecutorial outcome for a convicted felon.That's what seemed to happen Tuesday when federal prosecutors recommended a 7–9 year sentence for President Trump's indicted friend Roger Stone and Trump condemned the "horrible and very unfair situation." The Department of Justice then took a step back and asked for "far less" time in prison for Stone, and it all has top Democratic lawmakers looking for answers.Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) had a simple plea as the confusion played out: "We need to hear from the Attorney General," he tweeted Tuesday. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who's on the body's Judiciary Committee, meanwhile condemned the reversal as "absolutely abhorrent and stomach churning." Trump was "using his henchmen," Attorney General William Barr, "to overrule front line prosecutors," Blumenthal continued.House Judiciary Chair Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) tied Trump's recent action with the recent ouster of impeachment witness Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and promised to "get to the bottom of this."> A President who intervenes in the criminal justice system to help his allies, while punishing people like Lt. Col. Vindman for telling the truth, represents a real danger and the Committee will get to the bottom of this. 2/2> > — (((Rep. Nadler))) (@RepJerryNadler) February 11, 2020And Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) promised action on his part, following his Mondary spree of inspector general requests with the promise of another. "The DOJ Inspector General must open an investigation immediately" into the Stone situation, Schumer tweeted, adding that he'd be "sending a formal request to the IG shortly." More stories from theweek.com President Bloomberg? 3 Roger Stone prosecutors quit over Justice Department sentencing reversal Why Wall Street isn't freaking out about Bernie Sanders

The impeachment fallout continues.The New York Post reported Tuesday that Elaine McCusker, the acting Pentagon comptroller, will have her nomination for the permanent position rescinded by the White House. And, surprise, it has to do with Ukraine.In January, emails sent from McCusker questioning President Trump's directive to freeze about $250 million in Ukrainian military aid were leaked just before the president's Senate impeachment trial. Those communications clearly didn't sit well with the administration. "This administration needs people who are committed to implementing the president's agenda, specifically on foreign policy, and not trying to thwart it," a White House official told the Post.It's not clear when the nomination will be officially withdrawn, or if the decision will affect her acting role in the meantime, but it looks as if McCusker will eventually join Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who had served on the National Security Council, and former Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, both of whom were removed from their posts after they provided some of the more damaging testimony during the House impeachment inquiry. The White House said their ousters weren't related to their testimonies. Read more at The New York Post.More stories from theweek.com Justice Department changes course on Roger Stone sentencing after Trump's angry tweet Why Wall Street isn't freaking out about Bernie Sanders President Bloomberg?

Hawaii congresswoman made a noble effort to bring together voters with different beliefs, but her poll numbers are lowIf Tulsi Gabbard drops out of the Democratic race in the coming days, her unique campaign is likely to be remembered more for her spats with the Democratic party, accusations of being a Russian operative, and the imagery of her promise to “bring a soldier’s heart to the White House” than a realistic bid for president.The Hawaii congresswoman’s unusual political journey, which has seen her go from a rising progressive star to a regular Fox News guest supported by Republicans and libertarians, has so far not endeared her to supporters in New Hampshire, which goes to the polls Tuesday.While Iowa traditionally holds the first caucuses in the presidential election, New Hampshire has held the first primary since 1920. The goal for presidential candidates is to win early-voting states and create name recognition and a sense of momentum, as well to pick up their first delegates, who will eventually choose the nominee in summer.Sometimes a clear favorite for the nomination emerges quickly, but the last two major Democratic primary contests, pitting Barack Obama against Hillary Clinton and then Bernie Sanders against Clinton, have lasted from the Iowa caucuses in January through to late spring.After more than a year campaigning and holding more than 130 events in the Granite state alone, Gabbard is currently at 3.3% in the polls. She held 70 events in Iowa, an effort that won her the votes of 342 people on caucus night.“As president I will have your back,” she told a crowd in Rochester this weekend. “I promise I will treat every American with respect.”In all likelihood, Gabbard will not get the opportunity to prove that. The Democratic contest has not been kind to the long-shot candidates so far. The businessman and former congressman John Delaney, after spending two and a half years and more than $25m campaigning, dropped out days before the Iowa caucus.Joe Sestak, a three-star admiral and two-term congressman, pulled out at the end of 2019. Bigger names such as Cory Booker, Julian Castro, Kamala Harris and Beto O’Rourke have all fallen to the whims of the Democratic electorate.Gabbard’s rally in Rochester had gotten off to an inauspicious start, when the Elk’s Lodge venue misspelled her name: a TV screen displaying a “Tulsie” rally alongside listings for “western night” and “meat raffle”.Gabbard is 38 and has made physical vitality – along with her military service in the Hawaii national guard – a central feature of her campaign. She has posted videos of her surfing, taking part in push-up contests and working out in the gym.Yet for all that she has run a strangely joyless campaign.At rallies she speaks slowly, using lingering pauses, more like a university lecturer than a politician inspiring a crowd. In Greenland, it didn’t bother the crowd.“I met Tulsi on New Year’s Day,” said Spiro Paras, an ardent Gabbard supporter. “With direct personal contact I realized she has a soul and means what she says. That’s visible in her eyes and face.”The rally came amid a busy weekend for Gabbard. On Saturday she went on Fox News to defend Donald Trump’s decision to fire key impeachment witnesses Lt Col Alexander Vindman and EU ambassador Gordon Sondland.On Sunday, she went on Fox News again, this time appearing on Sean Hannity’s show. Hannity, a friend and informal adviser to the president who has promoted conspiracy theories about Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and the dead DNC staffer Seth Rich, praised Gabbard for her courage.“I think she’s taken politically brave acts that have blacklisted her with the Democratic party leadership,” Paras said.He was referring not just to Gabbard’s Fox News sojourns. Gabbard bucked her party’s elders to back Bernie Sanders over Clinton in 2016, and in December did not vote to impeach Trump. In January, Gabbard sued Clinton for $50m in retaliation for Clinton suggesting the Hawaiian was a Russian asset, months after Gabbard filed a $50m lawsuit against Google for allegedly suspending her campaign’s advertising.Despite all evidence to the contrary, Gabbard’s campaign believes she can outperform expectations in New Hampshire. One aide pointed to polls that show her with more than 5% support here – those polls exist, they are just few and far between – and Gabbard’s supporters seem just as optimistic.“Definitely top three, possibly even the top one,” was Paras’s prediction for Tuesday’s vote.Gabbard does have some reason to feel aggrieved at her treatment. Along with Clinton’s Russia accusations, Gabbard was left out of a pair of CNN town halls last week, even as the former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick – polling even lower than Gabbard – was invited. She has regularly complained that her campaign hasn’t received enough coverage from the press.That was the case at her rallies on Saturday and Sunday, where there were comparatively few journalists. They missed Gabbard, whose central theme is ending wars and diverting military funding to social programs, playing up the political diversity of her supporters, who are often male and skew conservative.Gabbard asked the Democrats in the crowd to raise their hands, then the Republicans to raise their hands, and then the “libertarians or independents” to put their hands in the air.Kevin Frost, 38, who was at the Greenland event with his wife and daughters, fitted into the independent camp.“I feel like some of the field is a little bit far left for where I feel we are as a country,” Frost said.He voted for Mitt Romney over Barack Obama in 2012, and for John McCain in 2008. In 2016, Frost said he voted “against Clinton, but not for Trump”.“The idea that [Gabbard] stepped out and held off the impeachment fiasco, that speaks volumes,” Frost said. “To me it seems like if she’s going to do that now, then when she’s president she’ll maybe think of things a a little bit more too.”If the vote on Tuesday reflects the polling, Gabbard will probably not be president.To her fans, her attempt to bring people with different political beliefs together might have been a noble effort, but it just isn’t clear how it helps in winning the Democratic nomination.

Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) probably wasn’t expecting this when she agreed to appear on Tuesday morning on The View via satellite from New Hampshire.Following an opening segment that contained mostly softball questions about the state of the Democratic primary race, the show turned things over to co-host Sunny Hostin after a break. Noting that “you need African-American support to become the Democratic nominee,” Hostin told Klobuchar, “Your tough on crime approach when you were a county attorney in Minnesota is criticized for disproportionately harming black and brown people, and when I look at that record, you know, you failed to prosecute a single killing by the police during the eight years you headed prosecutions, and there were more than two dozen police-involved killings in that period.” Amy Klobuchar Schools Meghan McCain on Impeachment“How do you defend that record?” Hostin asked.“We all know there is systematic racism in this criminal justice system, there's no doubt about that,” Klobuchar replied, going on to defend her record of prosecuting white-collar criminals and decreasing incarceration rates for African-Americans. “But there is so much more work that we have to do,” she added, “and that's why when I got to the U.S. Senate, I started working on things like the First Step Act, which we passed, which has decreased the criminal penalties and allowed some nonviolent offenders to get out of prison.” If she thought that was going to be it on that topic, she was very wrong. Hostin proceeded to bring up Klobuchar’s prosecution of 16-year-old Myon Burrell, a black teenager who is now serving a life sentence for murder despite evidence that suggests he could be innocent. “It gives me no pleasure to say this because as you know, I was a prosecutor as well,” Hostin said. “I have reviewed the facts of that case, and it is one of the most flawed investigations and prosecutions that I think I have ever seen.” As the mother of a black teenager, she called the case her “worst nightmare.” As she has done before, Klobuchar called for all of the evidence to be “immediately reviewed” in that case, but that was not enough for Hostin, who said, “You're a U.S. senator now. You're a powerful woman. What do you plan to do to right this wrong?” Hostin continued to press the candidate on the specifics of that case to the point that moderator Joy Behar jumped in from off-screen with, “Are we prosecuting Amy Klobuchar today?” With that, Hostin ceded the floor to Meghan McCain, but before Klobuchar signed off, she said, “I look forward to coming into the studio, Sunny and I can talk more.”“She’s tough. Sunny Hostin is tough,” Behar added with a laugh. “We’ll be right back.” Alec Baldwin and ‘The View’ Clash With Meghan McCain Over Rush Limbaugh HonorRead more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

President Trump and his re-election campaign are trying to cash in on leaked audio and video revealing billionaire Democratic presidential candidate and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg defending the "stop and frisk" policy he supported as mayor in an effort to reduce crime.The comments, which include Bloomberg saying the New York Police Department stop white people too often and minorities too little, have been subject to backlash, including from Trump. Earlier Tuesday he posted and then deleted a tweet calling Bloomberg a racist, but it looks like he found a way to continue to amplify that message without using his own words. Not long afterwards, Trump retweeted a post with an image of him playing golf with Bloomberg. The president focused on insulting his potential challenger's club speed and physical stature, but people were quick to point out the hashtag in the original post.> Note the hashtag in the quote tweet. This comes after Trump himself wrote, and deleted, a tweet saying Bloomberg was racist. pic.twitter.com/K2X2ZIh31s> > -- Grace Segers (@Grace_Segers) February 11, 2020While Bloomberg has faced staunch criticism for the policy, not all observers think Trump is the person who should be calling him out on it. The president has been accused of racism himself before and during his tenure in the Oval Office, and he's also expressed support for stop and frisk. > Trump can go after Bloomberg on his description of the policy, but Trump is in a glass house here. It's not like people didn't know what stop-and-frisk did. And Trump supported it.> > Also: Central Park 5.> > -- Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) February 11, 2020More stories from theweek.com The White House will reportedly dismiss another official over role in impeachment investigation Why Wall Street isn't freaking out about Bernie Sanders President Bloomberg?

(Bloomberg) -- House Republicans are putting two of Donald Trump’s most outspoken defenders into position to take leading roles in challenging any investigations of the president launched by Democrats between now and Election Day.Representatives Jim Jordan of Ohio and Mark Meadows of North Carolina were designated the ranking Republicans on the Judiciary and Oversight committees respectively by House GOP members Tuesday. The two committees will be main venues for Democratic post-impeachment probes of the president.Former GOP Representative Dennis Ross, who served in Congress from 2011 through 2019, said Jordan and Meadows will be in a position to throw sand in the gears of Democratic plans and serve as the White House’s eyes and ears amid any investigation.”Politically, this is a good thing for the president,” Ross, now director of the American Center for Political Leadership at Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida, said.Jordan and Meadows were ubiquitous during the House impeachment hearings on cable news programs and Twitter. Jordan was temporarily placed on the Intelligence Committee during public hearings by GOP leaders to cross-examine witnesses and challenge evidence. During the Senate trial, both were designated by Trump to serve as defense advisers and public surrogates.“I’m going to go fight for the things I think are important to the folks I represent, important to the conference, important to Republican and important to Americans,” Jordan said.Oversight Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney and Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler, both New York Democrats, have said there would be no letup in scrutiny of Trump and his administration despite his acquittal last week in the Senate impeachment trial.Their committees will keep seeking a wide range of evidence and testimony as they look into Trump’s administration, his policies and his businesses and finances, though no specific investigations have been announced by the panels or House leaders.House Democrats also plan to keep a focus on Trump’s conduct in dealing with Ukraine, and Nadler hasn’t ruled out trying to subpoena former National Security Advisor John Bolton and other witnesses who were blocked by Trump from testifying during the impeachment inquiry. There also are multiple court cases running on separate tracks seeking access to the president’s tax returns, testimony from former White House officials and financial records to show whether the president is unlawfully profiting from foreign governments that could trigger investigations.In a move made with the blessing of House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, Jordan will be leaving the top Republican spot on the Oversight Committee to moving up on Judiciary, replacing Representative Doug Collins who is stepping down in March to run for Senate in Georgia. Meadows, who isn’t seeking re-election in November, will replace Jordan as ranking Republican on Oversight.“It’s an important job, and I appreciated that Kevin and the steering committee has given it a thumbs up,” Jordan said.Meadows was with Trump at a rally in New Hampshire on Monday and didn’t respond to a request for comment.Most Democrats declined Monday to comment on the committee changes, including both Nadler and Maloney, through their spokesmen. Democratic Representative Jim Himes of Connecticut, said Republicans have been playing defense for Trump since he took office.”So it’s nothing new,” Himes said. “It’s obviously inconsistent with the role of Congress. We’re supposed to do oversight.”Senate CoordinationAs members of the minority party in the House, Jordan and Meadows can’t stop Nadler and Maloney from issuing committee subpoenas or initiating investigations and hearings. But they can make their own subpoena requests as a way to deliver a counter message even if they’re rejected and deliver minority reports in an effort to rebut Democratic findings.Their most effective tool may be coordinating with Senate Republicans, who can run parallel investigations more favorable to the president.Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, has said he would hold hearings on Hunter Biden’s work on the board of a Ukrainian energy company. Separately, GOP Senators Chuck Grassley of Iowa, chairman of the Finance Committee, and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, have asked the U.S. Secret Service to provide records of Hunter Biden’s travel when his father, Joe Biden, was vice president.Johnson said Monday that the investigation would examine “potentially misuse of agencies, possible corruption, whether Hunter’s involvement affected the Obama administration’s decisions related to Ukraine. I’ve got a lot of unanswered questions.”Trump’s request to Ukraine’s president to investigate Hunter Biden and the actions of Joe Biden, a potential 2020 challenger to Trump, was central to the impeachment charges brought against him by the Democratic House majority.Jordan and Meadows are likely “to work with their Senate counterparts who, as we’ve seen recently with Hunter Biden’s records, have no hesitations about using their perches to investigate Trump’s political rivals,” said Kurt Bardella, a former senior adviser to House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Republicans who has since switched parties. “Going forward, I expect we’ll see a lot of coordination between Senate majority and House minority.”Meadows and Jordan were among the Republican lawmakers who drew praise from Trump last week when the president held a post-acquittal celebration at the White House.Meadows stood up at the White House event to tell Trump that the backing of Republicans in the room “is a small reflection of the kind of support you have all across the country. We’ve got your back.”(Updates with House GOP making move official in second paragraph)\--With assistance from Emily Wilkins.To contact the reporter on this story: Billy House in Washington at bhouse5@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, John HarneyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

A Quinnipiac University poll released Monday had universally bad news for former Vice President Joe Biden, right as he heads into the New Hampshire primaries. Nationally, the poll found, Biden dropped into second place at 17 percent, the new frontrunner being Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), with 25 percent. Relative newcomer Mike Bloomberg, the billionaire former New York City mayor who is significantly outspending everyone in the race, comes in third at 15 percent, followed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) at 14 percent.But losing his national lead isn't the worst news for Biden. After New Hampshire, where Biden has low exceptions, comes South Carolina, where Biden's strong support among African American voters was expected to keep him on top. According to the Quinnipiac poll, as Axios noted Tuesday, his black firewall is burning. Biden's support among black Democrats dropped to 27 percent in the new poll, from 51 percent in December. And it appears that much of that support shifted to Bloomberg, who jumped to 22 percent support among black voters, followed by Sanders (19 percent), Warren (8 percent), and former Mayor Pete Buttigieg (4 percent). All the Democrats beat President Trump in head-to-head matchups, but Bloomberg's 51-42 percent margin of victory was the largest.Oddsmakers now have Bloomberg in second place for the Democratic nomination, after Sanders, Axios reports.The sample size of black voters in the poll probably wasn't very large, though. Quinnipiac conducted its poll Feb. 5-9 among 1,519 registered voters, 665 of whom are Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents. It has an overall margin of error of ±2.5 percentage points and a ±3.8 point margin of error for the Democrats and Democratic leaners.More stories from theweek.com The White House will reportedly dismiss another official over role in impeachment investigation Why Wall Street isn't freaking out about Bernie Sanders President Bloomberg?

(Bloomberg) -- Want the lowdown on European markets? In your inbox before the open, every day. Sign up here.Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskiy dismissed a top aide whose appointment had drawn criticism over his ties to a powerful billionaire.In a move that could precede a wider shakeup of the government, chief of staff Andriy Bohdan was replaced Tuesday by Andriy Yermak, a long-time friend of the president who advised him on relations with the U.S.Zelenskiy gave no reason for the change but in an interview published earlier in the day spoke of “conflicts within his team.”Bohdan’s presence had fueled one of the biggest controversies of Zelenskiy’s fledgling presidency because of his past role as a lawyer for tycoon Igor Kolomoisky. The businessman is trying to win back ownership of Ukraine’s No. 1 bank, whose 2016 nationalization was backed by the International Monetary Fund and remains key as the Washington-based lender mulls a new $5.5 billion loan for the government.Zelenskiy, a former comedian swept to power on promises to tackle corruption, himself had dealings with Kolomoisky, whose TV channel used to air his shows.Bohdan’s exit “would be welcomed by those concerned about his prior ties with” Kolomoisky, investment bank Dragon Capital said in an emailed note. Other personnel changes could follow “given the role Bohdan played in composing the president’s post-election team and the current cabinet.”Bohdan assisted Zelenskiy, a political novice, in crafting a campaign that captured voters’ hankering for change. He also introduced him to Oleksiy Honcharuk, who’s currently prime minister, the country’s youngest ever.‘No Winners’But there was speculation he’d fallen out with Yermak. Without elaborating, Zelenskiy complained about spats that had broken out among his staff.“I’m always against such conflicts as there are no winners,” he told Interfax-Ukraine in remarks published Tuesday. “We’re either losing people or time. But one can’t live in constant conflict.”Yermak, a former film producer, was instrumental in helping Zelenskiy fulfill a pre-election pledge to return Ukrainian prisoners held by Russia in the almost six years since President Vladimir Putin annexed Crimea and backed a subsequent war on the former allies’ border.Yermak also led diplomacy with representatives of Donald Trump over probes that were at the heart of the U.S. president’s impeachment. That included meeting Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, in Madrid in August.The initiative was of vital importance to Ukraine, which relies on the U.S. for financial and military aid.(Updates with Zelenskiy comments starting in third paragraph.)To contact the reporter on this story: Daryna Krasnolutska in Kyiv at dkrasnolutsk@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at bpenz@bloomberg.net, Andrew LangleyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.