“In the midst of a partial government shutdown stalemate over a border wall, the State Department has had to cancel, for now, an international conference focused on border security — due to that very shutdown,” CNN reports.
Romney Doesn’t See GOP Breaking with Trump
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) told UtahPolicy.com that he doesn’t know when or how the partial government shutdown will end, and he’s not sure what will break the budget impasse that is now more than 30 days old.
Said Romney: “I think it’s extremely unlikely that Republicans would say they’re not going to follow the president’s lead on this now. I think Republicans are going to say the president is negotiating on their behalf. I just don’t see very many Republicans that would be willing to depart from the leadership of the White House.”
Here Are the Trump Tower Moscow Plans
BuzzFeed News: “The president and his representatives have dismissed the project as little more than a notion — a rough plan led by Trump’s then-lawyer, Michael Cohen, and his associate Felix Sater, of which Trump and his family said they were only loosely aware as the election campaign gathered pace.”
“On Monday, his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, said ‘the proposal was in the earliest stage,’ and he went on to tell the New Yorker that ‘no plans were ever made. There were no drafts. Nothing in the file.’”
“However hundreds of pages of business documents, emails, text messages, and architectural plans, obtained by BuzzFeed News over a year of reporting, tell a very different story. Trump Tower Moscow was a richly imagined vision of upscale splendor on the banks of the Moscow River.”
Mueller Looking at Trump Campaign’s Ties to NRA
Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team “has expressed interest in the Trump campaign’s relationship with the National Rifle Association during the 2016 campaign,” CNN reports.
Said former Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg: “When I was interviewed by the special counsel’s office, I was asked about the Trump campaign and our dealings with the NRA.”
“The special counsel’s team was curious to learn more about how Donald Trump and his operatives first formed a relationship with the NRA and how Trump wound up speaking at the group’s annual meeting in 2015, just months before announcing his presidential bid.”
Senate Will Vote on Dueling Bills to End Shutdown
“The Senate will vote Thursday on two separate bills that would bring an immediate end to the partial government shutdown: one backed by President Trump that includes $5.7 billion for his border wall and another that would simply extend funding for shuttered agencies through Feb. 8,” the New York Times reports.
“The plan, a compromise between Sen. Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, and Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader, offers the first hint of a path out of the partial shutdown, which is now in its fifth week and has left 800,000 federal workers without pay.”
The Hill: “There is no guarantee that either bill can get the votes to pass and break the months-long stalemate that has closed roughly a quarter of the government. But the deal between McConnell and Schumer is the first glimmer of progress after weeks of entrenched back-and-forth.”
Power Struggle Paralyzes White House Press Shop
“White House press briefings, in steady decline even before the partial government shutdown, have now ground to a halt as a prolonged power struggle among President Trump’s aides leads to a muddled messaging strategy,” CNN reports.
“No one has emerged as the clear leader among Sarah Sanders, Bill Shine, Kellyanne Conway or Mercedes Schlapp, leading to deep divisions among one of the administration’s most fractious departments and causing a void for a coverage-obsessed president.”
Judge Declines Request to Certify North Carolina Race
A judge ruled that North Carolina’s investigation into election fraud by the Mark Harris (R) congressional campaign will continue, the Charlotte Observer reports.
“Harris is the Republican candidate who appeared to narrowly win an election for North Carolina’s 9th District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2018 elections. But the state has not officially certified his victory, due to an ongoing investigation into alleged fraud related to mail-in absentee ballots.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“Well, I mean, the ultimate check against any of this is the ballot box. And one could argue, at least with regard to the House of Representatives last year, that there were plenty of people who wanted a midcourse correction.”
— Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), quoted by the New York Times Magazine.
Shutdown Starting to Hurt Some White House Aides
Playbook: “As the president continues down the warpath for the border wall, White House aides are privately becoming more and more freaked out about the shutdown, fretting about their own personal financial situation and the president’s political standing.”
“Many White House staffers — including those in the executive office of the president — have not been paid since Christmas. They represent just a small sliver of the employees around America who have not gotten a salary during the shutdown. One difference is many of them have been forced to log long hours, and have restrictions on outside income.”
“These aides are keenly aware that the shutdown could easily go another few weeks, meaning they might not be paid for upward of a month and a half.”
Harris Raises $1.5 Million In 24 Hours
Sen. Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign raised $1.5 million in its first 24 hours from 38,000 donors, her campaign aides told Politico, “a massive haul for the first-term senator from California that tied Bernie Sanders’ one-day total from his 2016 presidential campaign.”
White House Tries to Move Forward with State of the Union
President Trump “attempted to move ahead with planning for a State of the Union speech to the U.S. Congress on Jan. 29 despite pressure from Democrats to delay it due to the government shutdown,” Reuters reports.
“An administration official said the White House sent a request to move forward with speech planning and requested approval of the House sergeant-at-arms for security officials to do a walkthrough of the venue. The request seemed likely to set up another clash between Trump and Pelosi, days after Trump abruptly refused to let her use a U.S. military plane to go on an overseas trip hours before she was to depart.”
ABC News: “Trump is preparing for two different State of the Union speeches – one a more traditional address delivered to Congress in the House chamber or some other location in D.C., the other prepared for a political rally at a location outside of Washington, D.C. that has yet to be determined.”
Ernst Says Her Husband Physically Attacked Her
“Years before her divorce, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) was assaulted by her husband after she confronted him about his alleged affair with their daughter’s babysitter,” the Des Moines Register reports.
“Ernst said that during her 26-year marriage with Gail Ernst, she was the victim of verbal and mental abuse and a physical assault after which a victim’s advocate wanted to take her to a hospital, she wrote in public records connected to their divorce.”
FBI Agents Say Shutdown Is Hurting Law Enforcement
“The FBI Agents Association warned Tuesday that the ongoing government shutdown is not only hurting individual FBI employees and their families, but hampering key operations,” CBS News reports.
“Some of those affected operations, according to a series of statements the association released Tuesday, include efforts to thwart the same criminal enterprises President Trump claims the shutdown is meant to defeat in the long run.”
Lawmaker Says Blacks and Whites Were Lynched Equally
Colorado state Rep. Lori Saine (R) claimed blacks and white Republicans were lynched in “nearly equal” numbers following Reconstruction and chastised the main sponsors of a resolution honoring Martin Luther King Jr. Day during a speech on the House floor, the Denver Post reports.
Said Saine: “We have come a long way on that arc since the Reconstruction, since whites and blacks alike were in nearly equal numbers lynched for the crime of being Republican.”
Mystery Company Allowed to File Sealed Appeal
“The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday let an unidentified foreign government-owned company appeal under seal a grand jury subpoena possibly related to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russia’s role in the 2016 election, and the firm said a ruling against it would ‘wreak havoc’ on American foreign policy,” Reuters reports.
Trump Directed Sanders to Stop Regular Briefings
President Trump tweeted that he told White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to stop holding regular briefings because of unfair treatment by the news media.
Said Trump: “The reason Sarah Sanders does not go to the ‘podium’ much anymore is that the press covers her so rudely & inaccurately, in particular certain members of the press. I told her not to bother, the word gets out anyway!”
Supreme Court Will Review Gun Restrictions
“The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it will examine New York City’s ban on carrying a licensed and unloaded handgun outside the city limits, the first Second Amendment challenge it has accepted in nearly a decade,” the Washington Post reports.
“The decision to hear the case in the term that begins in October may signal that the reinforced conservative majority on the court is ready to consider more laws that restrict gun rights.”
The ‘Ongoing Freak Out’ Over Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Matt Taibbi: “One of the first things you learn covering American politicians is that they’re not terribly bright.”
“The notion that Hill denizens are brilliant 4-D chess players is pure myth, the product of too many press hagiographies of the Game Change variety and too many Hollywood fantasies like House of Cards and West Wing.”
“The average American politician would lose at checkers to a zoo gorilla. They’re usually in office for one reason: someone with money sent them there, often to vote yes on a key appropriation bill or two. On the other 364 days of the year, their job is to shut their yaps and approximate gravitas anytime they’re in range of C-SPAN cameras…”
“We’ve seen this a lot in recent weeks with the ongoing freakout over newcomer Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Lest anyone think any of the above applies to ‘AOC,’ who’s also had a lot to say since arriving in Washington, remember: she won in spite of the party and big donors, not because of them.”
