January 1, Polls: American Support for Impeach Increases, Slightly

Age Is an Issue for Sanders After Heart Scare…

Biden Tries to Shore Up Support with Big Ad Buy…

This Day in History | 1927

Work begins on Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. 

Good Morning Middle Americans!

Republican leaders had two reactions to President Donald Trump’s public call for a foreign government to investigate political rival Joe Biden: silence and support. Meanwhile, the White House is preparing to formally object to Democrats’ impeachment inquiry as soon as today. 

The Presidential Candidates’ ages are again on the front burner of the 2020 presidential campaign after 78-year-old Bernie Sanders was hospitalized.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden is down, but not out. He’s committing to $6 million to television and digital advertising in the first four states on the 2020 election-year calendar. Is it a sign of weakness or strength? 

Read all about it. 

– Fraser Dixon

Poll: 45% of Americans Support Impeaching Trump, 38% Are Against It

(Marketwatch) – In a new sign of how support is growing for the impeachment effort launched last week, a poll out Thursday has found that 45% of Americans believe the House of Representatives should vote to impeach President Donald Trump.

Some 38% of respondents to the USA Today/Ipsos survey said the House should not vote to impeach him, and 17% said they didn’t know.

Read more the latest poll numbers here

Trump Letter to Dare Pelosi to Hold House Vote on Impeachment 

(Axios) – President Donald Trump will vow to ignore demands during the House impeachment inquiry unless Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., holds an official vote, therefore forcing vulnerable 2020 Democrats to put their name on impeachment. 

“They want to be a little bit pregnant,” a source said of Democrats investigating impeachment without holding a vote to do so.

The White House is preparing a letter to Pelosi to dare her to hold a vote to start an inquiry she had already announced before receiving a transcript of the Ukraine call or the whistleblower complaint. The letter has been drafted by not yet signed as of Thursday night, according to Axios sources.

Find out more from Axios here

Democratic Front-Runners Get New Scrutiny After Sanders Heart Procedure

(Politico) – Bernie Sanders’ hospitalization with a blocked artery this week finally forced the Democratic Party to confront a lingering fact: All three of its presidential front-runners are septuagenarians, and two are older than Donald Trump — himself the oldest person ever to take office.

For Sanders, the immediate effect of the incident — a blockage requiring two stents — was to sideline the 78-year-old senator until further notice, with rest for what an adviser called “the next few days.”

Read more from Politico here

Biden Ads Focus on Early-Voting States as He Counters Trump

(AP) – Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden is committing to $6 million worth of television and digital advertising in the first four states on the 2020 election-year calendar. It’s the latest demonstration of an increasingly aggressive campaign as he tries to hold his place as the party’s top challenger to President Donald Trump.

The ad buy comes as the former vice president steps up his counterattacks after disclosures about Trump’s effort to use the Ukrainian government to try to tarnish Biden, which has driven the Democratic-controlled House to undertake an impeachment inquiry.

Find out more from the Associated Press here