Monday, Feb. 3

· The state of Iowa held the first 2020 caucus. After lengthy delays due to inconsistent results reporting and problems with the caucusing app Shadow, Democratic presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg appear to be the winners, with 12 and 13 pledged delegates respectively, according to still-preliminary counts. The Republican incumbent President Donald Trump won his party with negligible opposition.

· The House managers and Trump’s defense team concluded their legal arguments in the Senate impeachment trial. The House Democrats argued that Trump had abused the power of his office and would do so again if left unchecked and unpunished; Trump’s team again denied the accusations and claimed the process was an effort by Democrats to overturn election results.

Tuesday, Feb. 4

· Trump delivered his third State of the Union address. He made his case for another term in office, spoke on healthcare reform, decried socialism, celebrated the lowest unemployment rate in the last half century and incorrectly claimed that the United States currently held the highest rate of economic prosperity in history. He said his administration and supporters “shattered the mentality of American decline” and “rejected the downsizing of America’s destiny.”

Wednesday, Feb. 5

· The impeachment trial ended in acquittal in the Senate in a nearly absolute party-line vote. Sen. Mitt Romney was the only Republican who broke from his party to support one of the two articles of impeachment.

· Homeland Security temporarily barred New Yorkers from enrolling in programs that fast-track travelers at borders and airports. According to the department’s acting secretary Chad Wolf, this is because of the state’s “Green Light Law,” which prevents agencies like Immigration and Customs Enforcement from accessing New York Department of Motor Vehicles databases without a court order. “This is obviously political retaliation by the federal government, and we’re going to review our legal options,” said Rich Azzopardi, an advisor to Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

· Attorney General William Barr issued new restrictions on opening politically sensitive investigations in an effort to ensure future presidential elections are, according to a memo from Barr, “free from improper activity or influences,” alluding to investigations that affected the 2016 election like Hillary Clinton’s private email server and the Trump campaign’s possible ties to Russia.

Thursday, Feb. 6

· The White House finalized plans to allow mining and energy drilling on about 862,000 acres of former national monument land in southern Utah. The current administration removed the land from the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, established by President Bill Clinton, in Dec. 2017.

Friday, Feb. 7

· Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman was fired from his position on the National Security Council. Vindman’s attorney suggested that this was an act of retaliation for testifying against Trump during the impeachment investigation. Trump later said he fired Vindman for being “insubordinate.”

· The White House dismissed Gordon Sondland from his position as ambassador to the European Union and reassigned him to the Pentagon. Sondland’s testimony in the impeachment inquiry was crucial to establishing the presence of a quid pro quo pressure campaign in Ukraine. A small team of Republican Senators attempted to stop the firing, saying that Sondland should leave on his own terms.

· The House approved $4.89 billion in funding for emergency recovery aid and tax relief to Puerto Rico. The package includes expanded child tax credits, increased rum tax revenue, and funds for disaster relief, technical assistance for the island’s electrical grid and bolstering of its food stamp program.

· The Justice Department dropped its antitrust inquiry into automakers Ford, Volkswagen, Honda and BMW—who sided with California in the state’s dispute with the White House over rollbacks of vehicle pollution regulations—after deciding that the companies violated no laws.

Saturday, Feb. 8

· The campaign for Joe Biden, former vice president and current Democratic presidential primary candidate, released a video targeting fellow candidate Pete Buttigieg. The video mockingly contrasts Biden’s experience in the federal government with Buttigieg’s comparatively small-scale experience as mayor of South Bend, Indiana. Of particular note, Biden attacks Buttigieg’s record on race for firing a black police chief and pushing out a black fire chief.

Sunday, Feb. 9

· The Wall Street Journal reported on the White House’s impending $4.8 trillion budget proposal, which is anticipated to include $4.4 trillion in spending cuts over the next decade, in particular targeting cuts or restrictions to social safety-net programs like food stamps, federal disability benefits, Medicare and Medicaid.