The death toll from China's coronavirus outbreak surged again on Thursday, rising by 73 to a total of 563 people, Reuters reports. It was the third straight record one-day increase. There have been two deaths outside mainland China, one in the Philippines and the other in Hong Kong. Another 10 cases were confirmed on a quarantined cruise ship in the Japanese port of Yokohama, bringing the total cases on board to 20.Experts are intensifying a push to develop a vaccine for the flu-like virus. Drugmakers warned they still had a long way to go before finding an effective treatment, although a report of a possible "breakthrough" lifted financial markets that have been struggling against fears of an economic backlash from the outbreak.More stories from theweek.com Fox News' Brian Kilmeade is really mad that Romney would 'bring religion' into his impeachment decision Trump opens National Prayer Breakfast by waving around a stack of 'acquitted' newspaper headlines How history will view Trump's impeachment

Senate acquittal is equivalent to a 'get out of jail free' card for Donald Trump and politicians down the road who will surely try to 'out-Trump' him.

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah never became president, but he earned a new distinction Wednesday: He will be remembered as the first senator in American history to vote to remove a president of his own party from office.Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee for president, said he expected swift and extreme recrimination from his party for his solitary act of defiance. He was not incorrect.Donald Trump Jr., the president's oldest son, tweeted that Romney "is forever bitter" about losing the presidency and called for him to be "expelled" from the Republican Party. Ronna McDaniel, Romney's niece and chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, said that the president had done nothing wrong, the party was "more united than ever behind him" -- and this was not the first time she had disagreed with "Mitt." And President Donald Trump tweeted a video attacking Romney as a "Democrat secret asset."Shortly after 4 p.m. Wednesday, Romney voted to convict Trump of abuse of power for his pressure campaign on Ukraine to investigate his political rivals, including former Vice President Joe Biden."Attempting to corrupt an election to maintain power is about as egregious an assault on the Constitution as can be made," Romney said in an interview in his Senate office Wednesday morning, ahead of the vote and an afternoon floor speech in which he choked up as he explained his decision.He declared Trump "guilty of an appalling abuse of public trust."Romney did vote with his party against the second article of impeachment, obstruction of Congress, arguing that House Democrats had failed to exhaust their legal options for securing testimony and other evidence they had sought.Although the final result of the Senate vote had never been in question, the defection of Romney was a rare cliffhanger in the impeachment proceedings and also a kind of moral sideshow.His vote cast into relief the rapid evolution of the Republican Party into an entity that has wholly succumbed to the vise grip of Trump. It deprives the president of the monolithic Republican support he had craved at the end of an impeachment case that he has been eager to dismiss as a partisan "hoax" perpetrated by Democrats.On the Senate floor Wednesday, Romney placed his decision in the context of his faith, his family and how history would remember it."I will only be one name among many, no more, no less, to future generations of Americans who look at the record of this trial," Romney said. "They will note merely that I was among the senators who determined that what the president did was wrong, grievously wrong."In the interview earlier, Romney, who has been critical of Trump at various points since 2016, said he was acutely aware that he would suffer serious political ramifications for his decision, particularly in light of the strict loyalty the president had come to expect from elected officials of his own party. No House Republican voted to impeach Trump in December. (Rep. Justin Amash, an independent from Michigan, fled the Republican Party last year over his differences with Trump and voted in favor of both articles.)"I recognize there is going to be enormous consequences for having reached this conclusion," Romney said. "Unimaginable" is how he described what might be in store for him.Romney had served as governor of Massachusetts before his unsuccessful run against President Barack Obama in 2012. He then moved to Utah and eventually ran for the Senate. He said he had come under enormous pressure in recent weeks from rank-and-file members of a party whose support for Trump has become nearly unanimous."I don't want to be the skunk at the garden party, and I don't want the disdain of Republicans across the country," Romney said in the interview.He already has endured a great deal of it, namely from Trump himself, who recently derided Romney as "a pompous ass." At a grocery store in Florida last weekend, after Romney voted in favor of calling witnesses to testify in the Senate trial -- another break with Republicans -- he said a man called him a "traitor" while another shouted, "Stick with the team!"As of late Wednesday morning, Romney said, he had not yet informed Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the majority leader, of how he would vote. He added that he made his decision late last week after the final round of questions between the senators and the respective sides in the impeachment trial. The magnitude of the matter weighed heavily on him."There's not been a morning that I've gotten up after 4 a.m., just obviously thinking about how important this is, what the consequence is," Romney said.Looking back over his political career, Romney recalled times in which his decisions had been influenced "in some cases by political benefit.""And I regret that," he added, without specifying the particular decisions. He became increasingly reflective as the interview wore on."I have found, in business in particular but also in politics, that when something is in your personal best interests, the ability of the mind to rationalize that that's the right thing is really quite extraordinary," Romney said. "I have seen it in others, and I have seen it in myself."As Romney revealed on the Senate floor how he would vote, Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, dabbed at his eyes."I had an instinct," he said afterward, "that this might be a moment.""He's been grappling with it," added Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., who sits next to Romney on the Senate floor. He said he respected Romney's decision.In his remarks, Romney called the actions in Ukraine of Biden's son, Hunter Biden, "unsavory but also not a crime." (Hunter Biden held a seat on the board of a Ukrainian energy company at a time when his father was vice president and handling diplomacy with the country.) Romney added that Trump's lawyers provided no evidence that a crime was committed by either of the Bidens."The president's insistence that they be investigated by the Ukrainians is hard to explain other than as a political pursuit," Romney said. "There's no question in my mind that were their names not Biden, the president would never have done what he did."As the vote arrived, Romney sat staring straight ahead, talking to no one, his hands clasped in his lap. When he stood up and declared "guilty," he did so quickly and sat right back down.Moments after the court was adjourned and senators stood up, Romney shook hands with Braun, smiled and rushed to the door just feet from his back-row desk, becoming the first senator to leave the chamber.When asked Wednesday morning if he had any special flourishes planned for his speech, Romney just shrugged. "I'm planning on tearing it up when I'm finished," he quipped, a reference to Speaker Nancy Pelosi's response to the president's State of the Union address Tuesday night.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company

With the New Hampshire primary just five days away, we still don't have a winner in Iowa.After technical issues with a new app and long phone delays held up any Iowa caucus numbers until almost a full day later, as of Thursday morning, 97 percent of precincts have reported their results.But the race is still too close to call, as former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg holds 26.2 percent of the delegates, while Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has 26.1 percent. Meanwhile, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is at 18.2 percent, while former Vice President Joe Biden is in fourth place with 15.8 percent. Biden has admitted he "expected to do better" in Iowa, while his aides weren't so diplomatic, with one telling Politico his performance was nothing short of a "disaster."Speaking of disasters, the Iowa Democratic Party on Wednesday released a new batch of results that they soon had to clarify needed a "minor correction." The incorrect results suddenly showed a surge in support for former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick (D), even though the Des Moines Register notes he wasn't even "actively competing for support" in Iowa. The Iowa Democrats soon issued correct results showing Patrick with no delegate equivalents. CNN reports the Iowa Democratic Party is expecting to release the full results by Thursday morning.More stories from theweek.com Fox News' Brian Kilmeade is really mad that Romney would 'bring religion' into his impeachment decision Trump opens National Prayer Breakfast by waving around a stack of 'acquitted' newspaper headlines How history will view Trump's impeachment

The Iowa Democratic Party owns most of the blame for the irksome delays in reporting Monday's caucus results — as of Thursday morning, there is still no declared winner. But maybe it doesn't deserve all the blame. In a conference call Wednesday night, Bloomberg News reports, state Democratic Party central committee member Ken Sagar said supporters of President Trump had flooded a hotline set up for local precincts to report their results in case a new vote-reporting app failed, as it did. Precinct chairs waited on hold for long periods of time, and some gave up.Sagar said on the call that he was manning the hotline Monday night and many of the people who got through expressed support for Trump, two participants told Bloomberg. The Trump backers got the hotline number from photos of caucus paperwork posted online, one person on the call said. Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Troy Price reportedly alluded to the shenanigans in the call but did not mention Trump supporters.More stories from theweek.com How Trump's New York trusted traveler ban will punish the most conservative parts of the state How history will view Trump's impeachment Fox News' Brian Kilmeade is really mad that Romney would 'bring religion' into his impeachment decision

Donald Trump has promoted a conspiracy theory that Mitt Romney is a “secret asset” of the Democratic Party just hours after the Republican senator voted to convict the US president in his impeachment trial of abuse of power.Mr Romney, a former Republican presidential nominee, delivered a damning speech to the Senate, accusing Mr Trump of an “appalling abuse of public trust” in attempting to pressure Ukraine to open investigations into a political rival in exchange for military aid.

President Donald Trump, facing a bruising re-election campaign and the possibility of more Democratic investigations in Congress, will make a public statement on Thursday about his acquittal on impeachment charges by a deeply divided U.S. Senate. On largely party-line votes, the Republican-controlled Senate cleared Trump on Wednesday of charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, keeping him in office and setting up a nine-month battle for the White House against the eventual Democratic presidential nominee.

There are two ways of looking at history. One is idealistic: "The arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice." The other is grimly realistic, and maybe a touch cynical: "History is written by the winners."The impeachment of President Donald Trump might be a good test case for which of these outlooks is more correct. He is the "winner" of this impeachment process after all — acquitted of charges by a (mostly) partisan Senate, and stands a reasonable chance of winning re-election in November.On the other hand, it is difficult to say that justice has been done. Even Republicans who voted for acquittal — Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Marco Rubio of Florida, and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee among them — proclaimed publicly that Trump's efforts to subvert the 2020 election were "inappropriate" and "wrong." If justice ultimately steers the judgments of history, in 20 years time we will probably see Trump's victory this week as a painful setback for the rule of law in America.But for the sake of optimism, I'm betting justice will prevail — eventually. At some point, the Trumpist fever will break and, like McCarthyism and other ugly isms before it, this era will be seen as one more obstacle to be overcome on America's path to justice. The president's defenders will either be mustered out of power, or find themselves in the position segregationist senator Strom Thurmond did by the end of his service, toxic by association, a relic of uglier times best left behind.But probably there will be a fair amount of heartbreak before that day arrives.With that in mind, here's a guess about who will be the heroes and villains of the impeachment story when historians render their verdict in 2040:Winner: Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah). He became the first senator in American history to vote for the impeachment conviction of a president of his own party, proving himself to be an independent person of conscience — and finally making good on his 2019 promise to oppose Trump's actions that were "destructive to democratic institutions." We shouldn't go overboard here — Romney's vote doesn't retroactively make Bain Capital awesome, or his "47 percent" comment cool, nor does it entirely balance out his own contribution to Trump's rise. But he did the right thing in the face of incentives to go with the GOP crowd. Good for him.Loser: Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). Collins has long presented herself as one of the last of the old-time New England moderate Republicans, a rare politician willing to alienate her own party to make independent stands. The Trump Era has entirely discredited that pose. She voted for Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation to the Supreme Court, promising the public he wouldn't overturn Roe v. Wade. We don't have a verdict on that prediction yet, but it's looking shaky. On impeachment, she voted for Trump's acquittal, saying she believed the president had learned his lesson. He immediately demonstrated otherwise. We don't expect better from Rubio, say, but Collins sometimes seemed like a potential profile in courage. No longer. Her credibility is shot.Winner: Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.). If the trial had ended 24 hours earlier, this spot might have gone to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who guided the chamber skillfully through impeachment — and often bested Trump through the simple mastery and assertion of the House's prerogatives. But her ripping up of the State of the Union address was just a little too much of a reality TV performance, the kind of thing best left to our reality TV president. Instead, this spot goes to Schiff, who stood out among the House's impeachment managers by making the best case for Trump's conviction — taking heaps of abuse from the president while building a case through the steady application of logic and good old-fashioned moral suasion. "If the truth doesn't matter, we're lost," he said. Republican senators mostly decided otherwise, but Schiff's efforts preserved some hope that there is yet room for truth in American governance.Loser: John Bolton. Trump's former national security adviser could have volunteered to testify about the Ukraine scandal while House committees were still taking impeachment testimony. He didn't. Instead, he waited until the case had gone to an uninterested Senate — and until he had a forthcoming book to promote. Bolton is the impeachment equivalent of the guy who reaches for the restaurant bill after you've already given your credit card to the waiter. He could've been Trump's John Dean. Instead, he's just a wannabe warmonger without a portfolio.Loser: The Senate. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) tried to make acquittal an example of the Senate's virtues, saying the chamber was serving as "a firewall to keep partisan flames from scorching our Republic." But the idea of the Senate serving as a hedge against partisanship has always been overblown. Impeachment requires 67 votes in the Senate for conviction. Given our era's polarization, that standard is almost impossible to meet. Which means the Senate can never hold a rogue president to account. What's the point?How we remember this moment in history depends a lot on the response of Americans going forward — and particularly the willingness of Democrats to unite in the upcoming election against Trump, despite the divisive nature of the primaries. If they can do this, the current ugly era might turn out to be a short blip in U.S. history before the return of better days.But if Democrats can't unite, Trump and his cronies will get a much better shot at writing tomorrow's history books. And then we'll all be losers.Want more essential commentary and analysis like this delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for The Week's "Today's best articles" newsletter here.More stories from theweek.com Bernie Sanders claims 'very strong victory' in Iowa based on popular vote count Trump goes after Pelosi, Romney, and more 'very evil and sick people' in wild post-acquittal speech Republican senator follows Trump's acquittal with a new Hillary Clinton email probe

The Utah senator was the only Republican to break with his party and vote to convict Mr. Trump, on one of the two articles of impeachment.

(Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump’s acquittal by the Senate delivered an expected yet exhilarating victory to the White House, freeing a president who has for years operated under the threat of impeachment and longed for vindication.The vote by the U.S. Senate on Wednesday provided Trump another last-hour escape from a mortal threat to his presidency, even though the outcome was tarnished when Mitt Romney became the first senator ever to vote to remove a president from his own party.The Romney decision, along with the unified Democratic front, soured an acquittal that otherwise appeared perfectly timed for the president, clearing the decks just as campaign season enters its full fury. But the bipartisan vote to convict -- a day after his State of the Union address, where he claimed credit for engineering a “great American comeback” -- laid bare the deep rancor gripping the Capitol.The 2020 contest is now an unambiguous referendum, pitting Trump -- and a Republican Party inextricably wed to him -- against Democrats, who have depicted him as an extreme threat to the republic. Both sides leave the impeachment process carrying considerable political risk.Following the Senate vote, Trump tweeted that he would make a public statement Thursday at noon from the White House on “our Country’s VICTORY on the Impeachment Hoax!” He later posted a video in which a narrator describes Romney as “slick, slippery, stealthy,” accuses him of “posing as a Republican” and taunts him for his 2012 election loss to President Barack Obama.Public RebukeThe GOP majority’s rejection of witness testimony in the trial gave Democrats a cudgel to argue Republicans covered up the president’s behavior. Polling showed that three-quarters of Americans favored calling additional witnesses, such as former National Security Advisor John Bolton.A poll published Wednesday by Reuters and Ipsos found that 60% of Americans believe Trump should have been either removed from office or censured for his scheme to pressure Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter. Just 31% said his articles of impeachment should be dismissed.The proceedings reinforced perceptions of Trump as a self-interested and venal leader willing to put his own political interests above the nation’s. Despite acquitting him, a clear majority of the Senate publicly rebuked Trump’s conduct as inappropriate, including at least six Republicans besides Romney -- Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, Rob Portman of Ohio and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania.The votes of Romney, a senator from Utah, and West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, whom the White House had tried to persuade to join its side, underscored the political risk that the saga would alienate moderate voters in swing states.“Were I to ignore the evidence that has been presented, and disregard what I believe my oath and the Constitution demands of me for the sake of a partisan end, it would, I fear, expose my character to history’s rebuke and the censure of my own conscience,” Romney said Wednesday on the Senate floor.Still, the president enters the election year with the wind at his back from a string of policy victories -- including new trade deals with China, Mexico, and Canada that have goosed the economy.Trump UnencumberedIf past is precedent, Trump’s post-impeachment victory lap could see a president who has previously demonstrated little restraint act fully unencumbered.The day after former Special Counsel Robert Mueller appeared at congressional hearings in July -- testimony that fell short of accusing the president of a crime -- Trump placed the controversial call to Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy at the heart of his impeachment.By his own unique standards, Trump has practiced restraint as the impeachment trial unfolded. He’s scaled back his freewheeling news conferences with reporters, taking only one question on the South Lawn as he departed the White House for travel in the past month.He withdrew his early demands that the Senate call the Bidens to testify, and -- on the advice of his lawyers -- avoided directly identifying the alleged whistle-blower responsible for launching the impeachment probe.But the acquittal -- which the White House on Wednesday called “full vindication and exoneration” -- could encourage Trump to return to the more controversial behavior the president believes helped propel him to the White House.Haunting QuestionsThe vote also fanned questions that seemed to haunt Democrats throughout the impeachment process: Was an effort with little chance of success worth the political risk of alienating swing voters and firing up the president’s base? Did the decision to rush the House effort -- rather than fully litigate White House attempts to block senior officials from testifying –- ultimately doom the case? And what will it take to beat Trump, who has time and again escaped consequences for behavior that would likely end the careers of other politicians?Leaders in the party argued impeaching Trump was important regardless of the political consequences -- an action demanded by the Constitution that would be validated by history.If nothing else, they said, the ordeal would remind voters of the chaotic and self-serving approach the president brings to his job. And, Democrats say, the episode has put swing-state senators like Toomey and Colorado’s Cory Gardner -- both of whom opposed calling additional witnesses -- in a death pact with the president.Three quarters of Americans said they supported the Senate calling witnesses, while a majority -- 53% -- said they believed Trump wasn’t telling the truth about Ukraine, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released this week.Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the Republicans’ refusal to call additional witnesses was “deeply disturbing on something of such importance to the future of our democracy.”Still, public opinion polls show Trump with some of the highest approval ratings of his presidency. A survey from Gallup released this week pegged Trump’s approval at 49%, his highest to date. His opponents say the president’s popularity should be far higher given the strength of the economy.Trump’s consolidation of support was reminiscent of other polarizing moments of his presidency, like Mueller’s determination there was no evidence Trump himself colluded with Russia, or the Senate vote to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh despite allegations of sexual misconduct.Schumer’s takeaway: Trump “will conclude he can do it again, and Congress will do nothing about it.”\--With assistance from Steven T. Dennis.To contact the reporter on this story: Justin Sink in Washington at jsink1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Joshua GalluFor 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.