In a call with House Republicans on Friday, President Trump portrayed the House impeachment inquiry as a mixed bag, predicting it will "make Kevin speaker" — give Republicans control of the House after the 2020 election, elevating House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) — but acknowledging that being impeached is a "bad thing to have on your résumé," Axios reported Sunday.

People who have spoken to Trump in recent days disagreed on whether Trump believes he will be impeached, Axios says, with one source saying Trump thinks he can pressure vulnerable Democrats into voting against articles of impeachment, but most advisers are warning him that impeachment is imminent and Senate Republicans will keep him from being convicted and removed. Trump's comments to House Republicans "perfectly encapsulate how Trump feels about it," Axios reports: "He believes it could help him get re-elected and win back the House. But he doesn't want the history books recording Donald Trump as an impeached president."

Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney is genuinely bullish on the political upside of impeachment, predicting numerous times that Trump will win a 45-state landslide in 2020 after the Senate acquits him, Axios' Jonathan Swan reports, citing three sources. Mulvaney's landslide prediction "is far from a consensus in Trump's orbit," and polling doesn't support it, Swan says, "but his voice is one that the president hears every day and could bolster how Trump views the political dynamics of impeachment."

Meanwhile, the "torrent of impeachment developments has triggered a reckoning in the Republican Party," The Washington Post reports, "paralyzing many of its officeholders as they weigh their political futures, legacies and, ultimately, their allegiance to a president who has held them captive" and "whose orders are often confusing and contradictory." Read more about how congressional Republicans are trying to survive impeachment at The Washington Post. Peter Weber

New York Yankees great Derek Jeter was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame on Tuesday, receiving 396 out of 397 votes cast.

This was the shortstop's first year of eligibility. A 14-time All Star, Jeter spent his entire career with the Yankees, and was the American League Rookie of the Year in 1996. He retired in 2014, after scoring 1,923 runs and making 3,465 base hits. His former teammate, Yankees relief pitcher Mariano Rivera, was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2019, the only player ever to be chosen unanimously.

Larry Walker was also elected to the Hall of Fame on Tuesday; this was the British Columbia native's final year of eligibility. The outfielder played with the Montreal Expos, Colorado Rockies, and St. Louis Cardinals during his 17-year career, and while with the Rockies, Walker — the 1997 National League MVP — led the team in 1995 to its first playoff appearance. Catherine Garcia

Jeff Flake, the former senator from Arizona, doesn't know whether he would have voted to impeach President Trump, but is sure of one thing: Trump definitely did something wrong.

Flake announced in 2017 he would not seek re-election, saying he felt there wasn't any room in the Republican Party for critics of Trump. He was in the Senate chamber on Tuesday, watching his former colleagues participate in Trump's impeachment trial, and during a break told reporters he saw valid points on both sides of the argument over whether Trump's pressure on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was an impeachable offense.

Trump pushed Zelensky to launch an investigation into his political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, and while Flake doesn't know if Trump should be removed from office over this, it wasn't a good idea. "As a Republican, it pains me when I see Republicans, House Republicans, try to maintain that the president did no wrong, that this is somehow normal," he said. "It's not." Catherine Garcia

Just call him the crown prince of hacking.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos reportedly had his phone hacked after receiving what was apparently an infected video file over WhatsApp from none other than Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman in 2018, sources told The Guardian. An analysis of Bezos' phone reportedly revealed that following a seemingly friendly conversation between the two men, the video file sent by the crown prince corrupted Bezos' phone and made large amounts of data vulnerable, eventually leading to embarrassing leaks.

The Guardian didn't receive word on what may have been pulled from Bezos' phone following the alleged incident, but the news that Saudi Arabia's future king was possibly directly involved with the infiltration is a major revelation in its own right. Saudi Arabia has previously denied targeting Bezos' phone, but previous investigations had determined with "high confidence" that Riyadh was behind the efforts.

There's another wrinkle to the already-head scratching story, though. It's been reported by The Intercept that the prince chatted regularly on WhatsApp with White House adviser Jared Kushner, who's also President Trump's son-in-law. That's now raising some speculation that those conversations may have taken a similar turn to Bezos. Read more at The Guardian. Tim O'Donnell

That's one down.

The Senate stuck to party lines Tuesday as President Trump's impeachment trial got under way. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) introduced an amendment to the rules dictating the impeachment proceedings which called for the Senate to subpoena White House documents related to the events. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) then responded with a motion to table the proposal.

There wasn't much drama after that. The motion to table passed 53-47, as every member of the upper chamber stuck with their side, including a few GOP lawmakers like Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), and Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who are generally considered the biggest threats to cross the aisle. Collins, for her part, issued a statement shortly after the vote indicating her decision had more to do with the timing of Schumer's proposal than her opposition to bringing in new evidence.

After the defeat, Schumer introduced a second amendment, this time calling for documents from the State Department. Tim O'Donnell

Harvey Weinstein's defense will aim to discredit his accusers by citing alleged "loving emails," which a judge has just ruled can be referenced during his rape trial.

Attorney Damon Cheronis claimed in court Tuesday that Weinstein's defense team has "dozens and dozens and dozens of loving emails" from witnesses to Weinstein that it wants to use during the trial, The Associated Press reports. The defense claims that in these emails, women "describe being in loving relationships" with Weinstein or "describe him as someone they cared about both before and after these alleged sexual assaults," Bloomberg reports.

"We will counter with their own words," Cheronis said, also alleging that "witnesses who claim sexual assault with him also bragged about being involved in sexual relations with him," Deadline reports.

Judge James Burke said Tuesday the defense is permitted to reference what was allegedly said in these emails, although they aren't allowed to actually show them, NBC News reports. Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi blasted the defense's characterization of the emails as "blatantly inaccurate," per Bloomberg.

Weinstein, who has been accused of sexual misconduct by more than 80 women, is facing charges of rape and sexual assault, to which he has pleaded not guilty.

Although Weinstein's defense on Tuesday won the right to reference these emails, it lost another bid to move his trial out of New York City; Assistant District Attorney Harriett Galvin called this a "transparent attempt to delay the proceedings," per AP. After a jury of seven men and five women was selected last week, opening arguments in the Weinstein trial are set to begin Wednesday. Brendan Morrow

Anything you say can and will be held against you.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) got a little taste of that Tuesday when Jaime Harrison, who is running to challenge Graham's Senate seat, launched a new campaign ad. In the video, the Democratic candidate begins reading a statement, as Graham's voice creeps into the scene. Viewers are then transported back in time to 1998 as Graham, then a member of the House, advocates for a thorough impeachment case against then-President Bill Clinton in which "everybody had a chance to have their say."

Graham hasn't exactly maintained that position in the present day — he wants President Trump's trial over and done, and isn't one of the Republicans who's on board with calling witnesses. But despite Graham's staunch anti-impeachment stance, Harrison seems to think it's worth reminding the senator of the good old days. Tim O'Donnell