“Venezuelan and U.S. officials are discussing exporting Venezuelan crude to refiners in the United States,” Reuters reports.
“Venezuela has millions of barrels of oil loaded on tankers and in storage tanks that it has been unable to ship due to a blockade on exports imposed by President Donald Trump since mid-December.”
Former Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY) won’t seek a rematch against Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) this year, Axios reports.
“Trump administration officials told lawmakers on Monday that then Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were injured after hitting their heads as they were fleeing U.S. forces trying to arrest them,” CNN reports.
“Maduro and Flores ran and attempted to hide behind a heavy steel door inside their compound, but the door frame was low and they hit their heads as they tried to escape.”
President Trump made some news in his speech to House Republicans, noting the weak political position that House Republicans are in, Punchbowl News reports.
“Here’s the big news. Trump weighed in on the enhanced Obamacare premium subsidy debate and urged Republicans to pursue health care legislation, signaling he believed it was their key to victory in the midterms.”
“Instead of extending the subsidies, Trump repeated that Republicans should direct federal funds to health savings accounts or directly to individuals to buy insurance.”
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) raised more than $10 million in the fourth quarter and ended the year with a staggering $30 million on hand, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.
President Trump took more shots at Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), insisting there was “something wrong” with the Kentucky Republican, Mediaite reports.
Said Trump: “He’s so bad. He never votes for us. No matter how good, he won’t vote for us. There’s a sickness there. There’s something wrong.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) told reporters that there’s “potentially a path forward” on Obamacare subsidy talks, but the Hyde amendment, which blocks federal money for abortions, remains “probably the most challenging part of this.”
Said Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), in response to President Trump asking GOP lawmakers for flexibility: “I’m not flexible on the value of every child’s life.”
“Abortion will remain legal in Wyoming after the state Supreme Court struck down laws that include the country’s first explicit ban on abortion pills, ruling Tuesday that they violate the state constitution,” the AP reports.
Former Rep. Mary Peltola (D-AK) is taking concrete steps toward a U.S. Senate run, including interviewing potential campaign managers, Axios reports.
Peltola is expected to make a formal announcement challenging Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) this month.
The Atlantic profiles Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), noting that he has a 30-page file on why the Democrats lost the 2024 presidential election.
“He starts listing them: incumbency, inflation, interest rates, Israel—and that’s just the letter I. ‘Yes, too woke,’ he adds. ‘Yes, 107 days,’ referring to the short campaign after Joe Biden’s forced withdrawal.”
“But the California governor distills his party’s problem down to one word. Weak. Newsom slaps his hand on a marked-up hardback of Bill Clinton’s memoir, brought down from the shelf a minute earlier. ‘Given the choice,’ he tells me, summing up a crucial Clinton insight—one many Democrats still can’t quite seem to grasp — ‘the American people always support strong and wrong versus weak and right.’”
“President Trump’s insistence in recent days that the U.S. should take control of Greenland was met with disbelief and dismay on Capitol Hill, with some Republicans warning that a seizure of the island was too dangerous to even contemplate,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“President Donald Trump implored Republicans to turn around their political fortunes ahead of November’s midterm elections, warning that if Democrats retake control of Congress, he would be impeached for a third time,” Bloomberg reports.
Said Trump: “You got to win the midterms. They’ll find a reason to impeach me. I’ll get impeached.”
Trent Holbrook (D), a top staffer of Eleanor Holmes Norton, the civil rights icon and longtime nonvoting representative for D.C. in the House, is running for her congressional seat, joining a crowded field as the 88-year-old lawmaker faces ever-mounting pressure to step down, the Washington Post reports.
“Five years ago, Pamela Hemphill forcibly entered the Capitol as part of an angry mob of protesters who, convinced of President Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was stolen, stormed the building on Jan. 6, 2021, in a violent effort to stop Congress from certifying his defeat,” the New York Times reports.
“On Tuesday, Ms. Hemphill, a retired addiction counselor from Idaho, entered the building again, this time to offer an emotional apology.”
Said Hemphill: “Thank you for having me back to the Capitol today. I am deeply grateful for this chance to try to make amends.”
“In another district or another time, Representative Daniel Goldman of New York City would probably coast to re-election for his safely Democratic seat,” the New York Times reports.
“He is a well-spoken former prosecutor with liberal bona fides and a vast personal fortune. He won plaudits as the House’s chief investigator during President Trump’s first impeachment, and could reprise that role if Democrats take back the chamber.”
“But as he formally begins his campaign for a third term on Tuesday, Mr. Goldman, 49, is instead girding for the fight of his political life as he faces a primary challenge from Brad Lander, a popular former city official.”
The Department of Health and Human Services either committed an editing error or is offering “all diseases” to Americans via the Affordable Care Act, Mediaite reports.
From the fact sheet: “Ensures that all the diseases covered by the previous immunization schedule will still be available to anyone who wants them through Affordable Care Act insurance plans and federal insurance programs.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
