Trump news – live: 'Asked to leave for telling the truth': Expert who testified in impeachment escorted from White House

Joe Walsh: Republican ends bid to challenge 'unfit' Trump for 2020 nomination

I can't say this is a huge suprise but GOP challenger Joe Walsh has just told CNN he is dropping out of the race, as it becomes clear the party is not interested in considering an alternative candidate to the president.

Democratic Party chief calls for re-canvass of Iowa caucus results: 'Enough is enough'

Over to Iowa, where Democratic National Convention chairman Tom Perez has said it is time to recanvass the state following the technical glitches and confusion that blighted this week's primary count, which was supposed to offer the first indication of which Democratic candidate would challenge Trump at the polls.

Perez says that "enough is enough" despite three per cent of the total count still missing from the final results.

A recanvass typically involves a precinct-by-precinct recount of paper votes. Party officials in Iowa are currently reviewing votes and entering them manually after an app's failure prevented precincts from uploading their results in the first place.

The poll currently has Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders in a near-dead heat with 26.2 per cent and 26.1 per cent of the vote respectively, followed by Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden on 18 per cent and 15.2 per cent respectively.

With attention turning towards New Hampshire, Buttigieg's support has shot up four points in a new daily tracking poll from WBZ/Boston Globe/Suffolk University, placing him second just behind Sanders.

Things went badly wrong for Biden in the Granite State when he ran for president in 1987 - can he turn it around this time?

Meanwhile, here's Trump's latest shouty heckle from the sidelines:

Alex Woodward has this report on the Iowa debacle.

Lindsey Graham: 'When I die God isn't going to ask "Why didn't you convict Trump?"'

The South Carolina senator has been speculating on the afterlife on Fox's Brian Kilmeade Show.

Here's the quote in full:

“When I go to meet God at the pearly gates I don't think he's going to ask me, 'Why didn't you convict Trump?' I may be wrong, but I don't think that's gonna be at the top of the list. I'll have a lot to answer for, but this was clearly an effort to destroy Trump."

God may not ask him that - but how about Satan?

(Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty)

While that headline comment is an open goal to political cartoonists everywhere, the southerner went on to say it was "common sense" to acquit Trump in his Senate impeachment trial and "one of the easiest decisions I ever had to make".

“It was politically driven, it was driven by people who are not looking for the truth," he said. "They hate Trump, they were gonna impeach him the day he got elected and if you can't see through this, you know, your religion is clouding your thinking here."

'Trump used acquittal speech to deliver swift retribution on Mitt Romney'

For Indy Premium, Holly Baxter says the president's speech yesterday was aimed at one man.

Stephen Colbert reimagines Romney as 'Secret Asset Man'

The Late Show's host was on inspired form last night using Johnny Rivers' classic 60s hit "Secret Agent Man" to send up Trump's assertion that the Utah senator was an undercover Democrat.

Intelligence agency behind Steele Dossier hits back at Trump

Trump once more laid into the notorious Steele Dossier yesterday, which carries the name of ex-MI6 agent Christopher Steele and compiles anonymous sources claiming that Russia collected a file of compromising information on the president.

The company Steele founded, Orbis Business Intelligence, has since taken to Twitter to lash out.

Andrew Yang campaign 'fires dozens of staffers' following poor showing in Iowa

A little more on the 2020 race here, as popular insurgent candidate and universal basic income champion Andrew Yang starts the sad business of letting people from his campaign team go following his poor showing in what very much looks like the beginning of the end for the Yang Gang.

Alex Woodward has more.

Jim Jordan chosen as new ranking Republican on House Judiciary Committee

Wasting no time in rewarding Trump loyalists for their cheerleading during the impeachment investigation, the GOP as selected Ohio governor and former PE teacher Jim "Gym" Jordan as their new top man on the Jerry Nadler-led panel. 

He'll be taking over from Georgia's Doug Collins after he announced his intention to run for the Senate and shifting over from Carolyn Maloney's Oversight Committee. The role will see him given a leading voice in debates on wide range of topics, from law enforcement to civil rights and the impeachment of federal officials.

Jordan notably lambasted Democrats on the first day of the public testimony phase of the impeachment investigation, calling it "a sad day for this country."

"You think about what the Democrats have put our nation through for the last three years," he said, adding that "the American people see through all of this. They understand the facts support the president. They understand this process is unfair and they see through the whole darn sham."

Here he is gloating smugly on Lou Dobbs last night for your viewing pleasure:

White House denies Trump is planning to fire key impeachment figures out of revenge

Does the Jordan move foreshadow further big changes?

Multiple media outlets reported on Friday morning that with impeachment behind him, Trump is ready to cast aside several aides - including acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney - but the White House is pushing back.

Also in the line of sight is Alexander Vindman, an active-duty Army officer who currently is the top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council.

Vindman raised concerns about Trump's 25 July call with Ukraine's president that was the basis of  House Democrats' impeachment inquiry and the president joked about him only yesterday.

John T Bennett has more on this.

Celebrity MAGA troll returns to Twitter as congresswoman takes on cyberbullies

The president this morning welcomed back once-admired Hollywood actor James Woods to his favourite social media platform.

The star of Videodrome (1983), Salvador (1986), Ghosts of Mississippi (1996) and Disney's Hercules (1997) has wasted little time in dishing out puerile insults and obnoxious sarcasm to the Democrats, Hillary Clinton, Mitt Romney, the CIA whistleblower, Bernie Sanders, Nancy Pelosi and AOC.

Woods's unwelcome return coinciding with Trump's acquittal seems an ominous portent of the toxic rhetoric we'r'e sure to be mired in this year.

One person bravely fighting back against abuse online is Massachusetts Democrat Ayanna Pressley - last heard from shunning Trump's State of the Union - who recently announced she is completely bald due to alopecia.

Here's Louis Staples of Indy100 fame on her message for trolls.