January 1, Trump Defense Team Accuses Democrats of Election Interference

This Day in History | 1979

The Dukes of Hazard debuts on CBS. 

Good morning Middle Americans,

It didn’t take long for President Trump’s legal team to take back control of the narrative in his impeachment trial.  White House attorney Pat Cipollone turned the tables on Democrats and accused them of trying to influence the 2020 election. 

Also, we have another update on the Coronavirus out of China. Chinese president Xi has described a ‘grave’ situation – and you know when he says it’s grave – its actually worse than that. 

Finally, for a little fun today, what do you think about the Space Force’s new logo? It reminds a lot of people of the Star Trek logo. Including us. 

Read all about it.  

– Fraser Dixon  

Trump Lawyers Argue Democrats Just Want to Overturn Election

(AP) – President Donald Trump’s lawyers plunged into his impeachment trial defense Saturday by accusing Democrats of striving to overturn the 2016 election, arguing that investigations of Trump’s dealings with Ukraine have not been a fact-finding mission but a politically motivated effort to drive him from the White House.

“They’re here to perpetrate the most massive interference in an election in American history,” White House counsel Pat Cipollone told senators. “And we can’t allow that to happen.”

The Trump legal team’s arguments in the rare Saturday session were aimed at rebutting allegations that the president abused his power when he asked Ukraine to investigate political rival Joe Biden and then obstructed Congress as it tried to investigate. The lawyers are mounting a wide-ranging, aggressive defense asserting an expansive view of presidential powers and portraying Trump as besieged by political opponents determined to ensure he won’t be reelected this November.

See Cipollone’s comments in the Senate here 

Chinese President Xi Warns of ‘Grave’ Coronavirus Situation

(AFP) – President Xi Jinping warned Saturday that China faced a “grave situation” as authorities raced to contain a virus that has killed 41 people and caused a drastic scale-back of Lunar New Year celebrations.

The world’s most populous country, which is scrambling to contain the disease that has infected nearly 1,300 people and overwhelmed health facilities, is building a second field hospital and closing more travel routes.

After more countries reported cases, Xi said at a Communist Party leadership meeting on the disease that China was “faced with the grave situation of an accelerating spread of the new coronavirus” but that the country will “definitely be able to win the battle,” according to state media.

Meanwhile China’s most important celebration has been all but cancelled for at least 56 million people as authorities expanded travel bans across central Hubei province to try and contain the spread of the virus.

Stay alert about the virus here

Space Force Mocked for Copying Star Trek Logo 

(The Week) – Apparently President Trump thought we hadn’t had enough Star Trek spinoffs for one year.

After literal years of anticipation, President Trump debuted a logo for the “Space Force” he’s been touting his entire presidency. It’s none of the adorable logos he asked Trump email subscribers to vote on about a year and a half ago, but instead a near-exact replica of the Starfleet Command logo from Star Trek.

Take a look here