You don’t need more evidence that Trump and Republicans are coopting the impeachment drama to advance the Biden smear campaign. But here’s Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) shouting the quiet part:

President Trump’s defense opened Saturday with a swift 2-hour session that crammed everything but the kitchen sink into an argument that was designed first and foremost to undermine Adam Schiff’s reliability as a narrator. In a stinging irony, the White House lawyers maintained a sustained attack on the House managers for, of all things, hiding evidence.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) captured it perfectly last night. Republican senators are looking for an “outrage offramp” to help get themselves off the hook. They’ll find it some way some how. Whether it’s taking great umbrage with process or with the tone of House managers or other petty decorum slights.

Sen Whitehouse: Republicans are “desperate to find an outrage off-ramp” pic.twitter.com/m4EfZmQJfh

— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) January 25, 2020

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s resolution establishing the rules of the road for the impeachment trial is just out, and it’s a doozy.

TPM Reader SL brings the heat:

Lev Parnas dumps the Ukraine scandal right in Trump’s lap in his first interview about the Ukraine scandal.

A week before his scheduled sentencing, former National Security Adviser Mike Flynn is seeking to withdraw his guilty plea.

We’re getting word now that Speaker Pelosi is telling her members to expect a vote Wednesday on sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate. Tierney Sneed is outside the House Democratic caucus meeting on the Hill, we will have her report shortly.

Buried down in a Wall Street Journal story on the decision-making behind the U.S. strike on Gen. Qassem Soleimani:

A quick rundown on a couple of important court actions within the last hour: