Jury foreman works with the accused to formulate strategy

From The Hill:

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is pledging that he'll be in "total coordination" with the White House as he plots the GOP strategy for an impeachment trial.

McConnell, during an interview with Fox News, repeatedly pledged that he will be in sync with White House Counsel Pat Cipollone, with whom he met privately on Thursday.

"Everything I do during this I'm coordinating with the White House counsel. There will be no difference between the president's position and our position as to how to handle this," McConnell told Fox News on Thursday night.

McConnell concluded:

There’s no chance the president will be removed from office.

Impartiality? Checks and balances? Anyone?

Trump acts “presidential” during yesterday's impeachment debate by breaking his own one-day Twitter record

From The Hill:

President Trump on Thursday set a personal record for use of Twitter in a single day since taking office, blasting out more than 120 tweets or retweets in 24 hours.

Outgoing Kentucky governor pardons convicted killer

Last month, I wrote about Kentucky governor Matt Bevin’s defeat in the Kentucky governor's race. Here is the headline in yesterday’s Lexington Herald Leader:

Bevin pardons a KY man convicted of beheading a woman and stuffing her in a barrel

The paper also cited another interesting pardon by Bevins:

One of them was Patrick Baker, who was one of three men convicted of a murder in Knox County in 2014. Baker’s sentence was commuted, but the other two men remain in prison. Baker’s brother and sister-in-law held a fundraiser in 2018 for Bevin that raised $21,500, and personally contributed $4,000.

Draining that swamp

In Trump’s first year, local editor Mike Myer frequently praised the president for “draining the swamp.” Myer has not written anything about “the swamp” lately. Maybe this explains it:

That’s one lobbyist for every 14 political appointees, and four times more than Obama appointed in his first six years. https://t.co/hC83O77Dgi

— ProPublica (@propublica) December 13, 2019

Junior gets it honestly

Argali sheep are beautiful and deeply endangered. They live in remote western Mongolia.

Don Jr. went there and shot one.

How’s he do that? He got a permit from Mongolia *after his trip.*

And oh, he hung with Mongolia’s president. https://t.co/1aZWHoESPE

— Eric Umansky (@ericuman) December 11, 2019