DSCC FRIDAY TAKEAWAYS: NEW POLLING FINDS REPUBLICANS UNDERWATER–VULNERABLE INCUMBENTS WON’T COMMIT TO FAIR TRIAL–SILENCE ON NEW RAID ON MILITARY FUNDS

*NEW* POLLING SHOWS MOST VULNERABLE GOP SENATORS NOW UNDERWATER. The new year continues to bring new trouble for vulnerable Republican Senators, as Morning Consult released new polling showing them losing support from “voters of all political stripes.” 

• Senator Susan Collins has surpassed Mitch McConnell as the least popular senator in the country, dropping 23 points in 2019 alone. 
• She is joined by Senators Joni Ernst, Cory Gardner and Martha McSally in the top 10 most unpopular Senators in the country. 
• Meanwhile, Senator Thom Tillis remains underwater despite already having spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on paid advertising. Read Morning Consult’s full analysis here. 

REPUBLICAN SENATORS REFUSE TO COMMIT TO HEARING KEY WITNESSES AND CRITICAL EVIDENCE. The Senate was sworn in for the impeachment trial this week, but Republicans still won’t commit to holding a fair trial. For months now, vulnerable GOP incumbents have tried every maneuver in the book to avoid answering basic questions about the president’s conduct, and they brought their evasion to Capitol Hill this week — ducking press and scrambling to avoid scrutiny about whether they will dare to break stride from Mitch McConnell and vote to allow evidence and witnesses.

Here’s the latest on the impeachment process and how Senate Republicans are handling their role as jurors (spoiler alert — not well):

• Talking Points Memo: Senate GOP Blows Off GAO Finding That Trump’s Hold On Ukraine Aid Was Illegal

• National Review: Inconvenient Evidence Puts GOP Senators on the Spot in Impeachment Trial
   
• Bloomberg’s Steven Dennis: “Whole Lotta GOP senators don’t want to comment on the GAO report”
   
• AZ – CNN: “Sen. Martha McSally (R-AZ) called CNN’s Manu Raju a ‘liberal hack’ when asked about considering new evidence for President Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate.”
   
• CO – Denver Post: “Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado isn’t saying whether he is part of a small group of Republican senators considering allowing witnesses as impeachment charges against President Donald Trump prepare to move to Congress’ upper chamber.”
  

• IA – Des Moines Register: Joni Ernst says watchdog’s finding that White House broke law is ‘moot’ for impeachment

• ME – Washington Post: Jennifer Rubin Column: Susan Collins’s willful blindness already looks awful
   
• NC – Fox News: Sen. Tillis says calling witnesses is a ‘slippery slope’ in a Senate impeachment trial

MCSALLY *STILL* HASN’T ANSWERED THE QUESTION. Unelected Senator Martha McSally has spent months trying to avoid saying whether she supports a fair trial, even going “around the Capitol, around parked cars” to hide from reporters. On Thursday, when asked again whether she would fulfill her duty as an impartial juror, McSally again refused to answer the question, but this time took a different tack. It didn’t go well. Read more:

• Associated Press: “McSally refused to answer when CNN reporter Manu Raju asked whether the Senate should consider new evidence as part of its impeachment trial.”
  
• New York Times: “It was a straightforward question being put to nearly every Republican senator in the Capitol on Thursday: Should the Senate consider new evidence as part of the impeachment trial? But when Manu Raju of CNN, a longtime congressional reporter, put it to Senator Martha McSally of Arizona, a first-term Republican who is up for election this fall, she went on the attack.”
  
• Washington Post: “Rather than answer a question about the pending impeachment trial of President Trump, Republican Sen. Martha McSally repeatedly on Thursday called a CNN reporter a ‘liberal hack’”
  
• Arizona Republic: “Manu Raju, CNN’s senior congressional correspondent, approached McSally, R-Ariz., in a hallway and asked if she would consider new evidence as part of the impeachment trial. ‘Manu, you’re a liberal hack. I’m not talking to you,’ McSally dismissively shot back.”
  
• The Week: “CNN’s Manu Raju approached McSally Thursday to ask if she feels the Senate should consider new evidence in Trump’s impeachment trial, but the Republican senator harshly rebuffed Raju and refused to answer.”

Laura Ingraham spent most of her interview with Martha McSally mocking CNN and @mkraju, but even she got frustrated when McSally wouldn’t answer the simple question: do you want witnesses or not?

— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) January 17, 2020

GARDNER RUNS FROM REPORTERS AND HIS OWN RECORD. Earlier this week, Senator Cory Gardner’s opposition to the Affordable Care Act disappeared from his campaign website. Gardner attempted to hide his votes to repeal the ACA, and his office did not return attempts to contact them about the change to the website. Gardner continued to be evasive yesterday when local Colorado reporters from 9News caught up with him at the airport. Gardner, who has “dodged requests for scheduled interviews” for weeks, refused to stop for the interview and instead tried to run from basic questions about the impeachment trial. Read more on Gardner’s avoidance tactics: 

• Colorado Times Recorder: Gardner Erases His Opposition to Obamacare From His Campaign Website
  
• 9 News: We caught up with Sen. Gardner at the airport to ask if he supports new witnesses in impeachment trial
  
• Denver Post: “Silence has become the norm for Gardner on the topic of impeachment. His office previously declined to say whether witnesses should be called and whether he agrees with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s “total coordination” with the White House.”

WHITE HOUSE PLANS ANOTHER RAID ON MILITARY PROJECTS, GOP SENATORS SILENT. Vulnerable GOP incumbents were silent about the White House plan to raid another $7.2 billion from military construction projects across the country. Last year, when these Republicans were caught “between supporting Trump and delaying projects that benefit military families in their home states,” every single one knowingly upheld robbing millions from their home states: 

• AZ: McSally allowed the White House to take $30 million from Fort Huachuca
  
• CO: Gardner allowed the White House to take $8 million from Peterson Air Force Base
  
• NC: Tillis allowed the White House to take $80 million from bases across the state 
  
• SC: Graham allowed the White House to take $11 million from Laurel Bay at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort

BIGGEST BANKS GET “$32 BILLION WINDFALL” FROM #GOPTAXSCAM. The nation’s biggest banks are reaping “record profit” thanks to Senate Republicans’ corporate tax giveaway, but “the windfall is largely staying with banks and their shareholders.” And despite seeing their average effective tax rate drop by nearly half since the tax law has been in effect, “big banks have actually shed jobs” since it was passed — yet another sign that Republicans’ corporate handout has “failed to deliver” for working families and that the corporate tax cuts “have not… come anywhere close to paying for themselves.” Read more about how Senate Republicans’ corporate tax giveaway continues to pay off for Wall Street here. 

LATEST Q4 FUNDRAISING ROUNDUP

AL – @lyman_brian: “Inbox: U.S. Sen. Doug Jones’ campaign says it raised $1.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2019”

AZ – AZ Mirror: Kelly raises $20 million, McSally $12 million in 2019 for Senate race

• “Democratic challenger Mark Kelly has again topped Arizona Republican Sen. Martha McSally’s fundraising in one of the top 2020 Senate races, according to numbers released by both campaigns Tuesday. Kelly, a retired astronaut, raised $6.3 million in the fourth quarter and had $13.6 million in the bank at the end of 2019, according to his campaign. He’s led McSally in fundraising since announcing his Senate bid nearly a year ago.”

CO – Colorado Public Radio: Hickenlooper Rakes In $2.8M To Close Out 2019 Fundraising

• “Former Gov. John Hickenlooper raised $2.8 million in the fourth quarter for his bid to challenge Republican Sen. Cory Gardner this fall. The fundraising haul means he starts the election year with $3.2 million on hand. … According to the campaign, the amount raised was the most in an off-year quarter for any U.S. Senate campaign in the state. Donations came from each of Colorado’s 64 counties, with 93 percent made up of small donations of $200 or less.”

NH – WMUR: Shaheen raised more than $2M in fourth quarter, record $7.7M in all of 2019, for reelection bid

• “Sen. Jeanne Shaheen wrapped up 2019 with another big fundraising haul for her reelection bid. The Democratic incumbent, running for her third term, raised more than $2 million between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31 of last year, bringing her total raised for all of 2019 to $7.7 million — “more than any other candidate in New Hampshire history has raised in an off-year” — a campaign official said. Her total raised for the election cycle, since she was reelected in 2014, climbed to nearly $9.5 million.”

DSCC ENDORSES JAMES MACKLER IN TENNESSEE SENATE RACE. The DSCC endorsed James Mackler in Tennessee for the U.S. Senate. “James Mackler served our country with courage and integrity, and he will bring those values to the U.S. Senate,” said DSCC Chairwoman and Senator Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada. “He will work tirelessly on behalf of Tennesseans to protect pre-existing conditions coverage and health care access in rural communities, cut red tape to help Tennessee’s small businesses, and take on the special interests that have corroded our democracy and hurt Tennessee families.” Read more about Mackler and the endorsement here. 

IN THE STATES

GA – CBS 46: “While [Loeffler] has made clear she has the President’s back, what’s not clear is if the President has hers.”

• The President adamantly pushed Governor Brian Kemp to appoint Representative Doug Collins to the vacant Senate seat, not Loeffler. And since Loeffler’s swearing in, he has yet to publicly express support for her, or even call her to congratulate her.

GA – Georgia Recorder: Georgia Dems push new GOP U.S. Senator to oppose Obamacare repeal

• A Georgia health care coalition and a group of state legislators are pushing U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler to publicly oppose the ongoing dismantling of the Affordable Care Act, which they say provides important protection for women’s health care. Pro-Obamacare advocate Protect Our Care, Sen. Jen Jordan, Rep. Pat Gardner, Georgia Democratic Party Chair Nikema Williams were among those at a Tuesday press conference at the state Capitol pleading for the newly appointed Republican senator to make a public statement against the health care law’s repeal, a stance that would put her at odds with President Donald Trump. So far, Loeffler’s been publicly adamant in her support of the president’s policies.

ME – Maine Beacon: Denied town hall, Mainers flood Sen. Collins’ office with questions on tax cuts, health care

• Senator Susan Collins has not held a town hall for years and has refused to attend ones organized by outside groups. Without a platform to ask their questions to Collins directly, more than 500 Mainers from across the state took the Maine Democratic Party up on their offer to deliver their questions to the senator’s Bangor office in written form on Wednesday. … Among the questions were many that focused on the fate of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which is under threat after an appeals court struck down the individual mandate in December and Collins’ deciding vote to pass the 2017 GOP tax plan that paved the way for that decision. 

ME – Bangor Daily News: Maine’s Susan Collins has highest disapproval rating of any senator in national survey

• A national survey released Thursday found U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine had the highest disapproval rating of any senator in 2019’s last quarter as she enters a campaign for a fifth term in which she is one of national Democrats’ top targets. The Republican once polled as Maine’s most popular politician and won her 2014 race with more than two-thirds of votes, but her 2018 vote for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh kicked off a massive Democratic campaign against her and the news comes amid impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump that will be high-stakes for Collins.

NC – News & Observer: Tillis challenges Democratic rivals to five debates. ‘Bring it on,’ one says.

• Republican U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis challenged the Democratic primary winner to a series of debates Wednesday — and at least one Democrat accepted. “Bring it on, Thom,” Cal Cunningham replied in a tweet. Cunningham is one of five Democrats running for the seat in the March 3 primary. He held a double-digit lead in a recent survey by Public Policy Polling. Backed by the national Democratic Party, he has raised $3.1 million since entering the race last summer, far more than any of his primary rivals.

SC – The State: SC agrees to change voter registration requirements after Democratic officials sue

• Democratic officials celebrated a victory after South Carolina election officials agreed to change voter registration requirements that currently demand all voters to submit their full social security number, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced Friday morning. South Carolina is one of three states that currently requires all nine digits of a social security number to register to vote, according to the statement. The new agreement between the DCCC, the South Carolina Democratic Party, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and South Carolina officials removes that requirement, instead opting for requiring only the last four digits.

TWEET OF THE WEEK

Anybody think I can catch Cory Gardner before my 8:10 flight? #HeyNext pic.twitter.com/uvDf0IePKH

— Steve Staeger (@SteveStaeger) January 17, 2020

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