That’s a wrap from another chaotic day in Trump’s Washington. To recap:
- The US government remains in a partial shutdown.
- A meeting between Trump and congressional leaders failed to produce a breakthrough.
- A Democratic congresswoman is under fire for saying her party will “impeach the motherfucker” in reference to Trump.
- In a rambling appearance outside the White House, Trump insisted Mexico is paying for the wall – while still demanding Congress pay for it; said he could declare a national emergency and build the wall himself – while still demanding Congress approve it; and claimed a president can’t be impeached if he’s doing “a great job”.
Feeling a tad bit exhausted? So are we ... have a great weekend, folks, and tune in again next week!
Updated
Supreme court to take up cases on partisan gerrymandering
The US supreme court announced on Friday it will again wade into the controversial issue of partisan gerrymandering by taking up two cases that examine whether congressional maps were drawn in ways that violated the Constitution.
America’s highest court will hear the two cases in March, which concern electoral maps in North Carolina and Maryland deemed to be unconstitutional by lower courts.
The case in North Carolina involved the state’s entire congressional map, which was drawn up by Republicans. Although Republicans won just 53% of the statewide vote, the party was able to maintain a 10-3 majority of congressional seats in November’s midterm elections.
In Maryland, Republican voters alleged that a single congressional district was redrawn to favor Democrats.
The supreme court ruling could carry significant consequences for the next redistricting process, which is due to occur in 2020.
Grand jury in Russia investigation extended for six months
The federal grand jury impaneled by special counsel Robert Mueller has been extended for another six months.
The grand jury was convened last year in Washington on an 18-month term, which was set to expire in the coming days. But the chief judge of the DC district court extended the grand jury’s mandate for another six months, according to CNN.
Remember, it’s the grand jury that has considerable power to subpoena witnesses and documents.
NEW IN THE RUSSIA INVESTIGATION:
— Katelyn Polantz (@kpolantz) January 4, 2019
The chief judge of the DC District Court has extended the term of the grand jury used by Mueller for indictments.
They were set to expire Jan. 6. Now could sit for up to 6 more months.
What this means: Much to Team Trump’s chagrin, the Mueller investigation isn’t going anywhere.
Hello everyone! Sabrina Siddiqui here, taking over the blog from my trusted colleague Jamiles. I’ll keep you posted on key developments over the next few hours, as we try and make sense of Trump’s marathon appearance outside the White House.
One quick update to kick us off: White House press secretary Sarah Sanders has called the ongoing pay freeze on federal workers an “unnecessary byproduct” of the government shutdown.
“The Administration is aware of the issue and we’re exploring options to prevent this from being implemented while some federal workers are furloughed,” Sanders said. “Congress can easily take care of this by funding the government and securing our borders.”
In other words, federal workers are not about to get paid any time soon ... even as senior Trump administration officials are poised to get raises as high as $10,000.
Asked if he would turn down the automatic raise coming his way during the government shutdown, @VP Pence says “yes.” pic.twitter.com/Z6vPc14Cuf
— Jeff Mason (@jeffmason1) January 4, 2019
Trump also said he would consider asking his Cabinet officials not to accept the $10,000 raise due to take effect for them tomorrow.
He concludes his remarks by suggesting “The people that won’t get next week’s pay or the following week’s pay, I think if you ever really looked at those people, I think they’d say, ‘Mr. President, keep going, this is far more important.’”
Donald Trump seems to confirm ABC News reporting that his administration is considering building a wall without the consent or appropriation of Congress by declaring a national emergency.
“I can do it if I want,” Trump said. “We can call a national emergency and build it very quickly.”
"I can do it if I want," Trump now saying he is "allowed" to build the wall himself without congressional approval or appropriation. "We can call a national emergency and build it very quickly."
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) January 4, 2019
President Trump just said he could declare a national emergency to build the wall unilaterally without Congress. So this whole shutdown is... what, then?
— Phil Elliott (@Philip_Elliott) January 4, 2019
Updated
Trump is now talking about “the military version of eminent domain” to build the wall, which per the fifth amendment is, bluntly, not a thing. It has the added bonus of sounding more or less like the literal definition of military conquest.
Trump is now talking about "the military version of eminent domain" to build the wall
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) January 4, 2019
ABC News: Trump considering declaring national emergency in an effort to secure wall funding
Citing multiple sources, ABC News is reporting that President Donald Trump is seriously considering declaring a national emergency to help pay for parts of his desired border wall.
“Sources tell ABC News the discussions are still on the ‘working level’ adding that there’s a range of legal mechanisms that are being considered before such a decision is announced.”
Trump responded to Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib’s high-profile call for impeachment by saying “you can’t impeach somebody who’s doing a great job.” which is not strictly true.
Trump on Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s comments: “Well, you can’t impeach somebody who's doing a great job. That’s how I view it."
— Sabrina Siddiqui (@SabrinaSiddiqui) January 4, 2019
Trump says Tlaib "dishonored herself and dishonored her family" and adds that it was "highly disrespectful to the United States of America."
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) January 4, 2019
Updated
Is Trump still “proud” to shut the government down? You be the judge.
Trump on whether he's still proud to own shutdown, as he said he would be: "I'm very proud of doing what I'm doing. I don't call it a shutdown. I call it doing what you have to do."
— Jeremy Diamond (@JDiamond1) January 4, 2019
Brand new walls. Beautiful walls. Steel walls.
Trump defended his demand for a border wall in a Rose Garden press conference this afternoon, citing traffickers who he said “take a right” when they get to ports of entry, drive until the current walls end, make a left and it’s “Welcome to the United States”.
“We will have to build a steel wall...I think you are probably talking about steel,” Trump said.
"Usually it's a left, not a right." Here's the full Trump quote on the driving routes of human traffickers. pic.twitter.com/4VM5DjrSZi
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) January 4, 2019
“Whether it’s a wall or some form of very powerful steel- now the steel is actually more expensive than the concrete but I think we’re really talking about steel because I really feel the other side feels better about it.”
It is not clear whether Trump meant Mexico or Democrats when he referenced “the other side”, nor is it clear that either party would be more amenable to a steel, as opposed to concrete barrier at the border.
Updating a previous item, Trump announces that his team for ongoing negotiations over the weekend will be VP Mike Pence, Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen and adviser Jared Kushner.
Trump says at meeting he asked for $5.6 billion to meet his border security demands -- that's in line with the bill passed by the House GOP late last year -- but far more than the $1.3 billion offered by Dems
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) January 4, 2019
Donald Trump acknowledges that "absolutely I said that" when asked about Schumer saying that Trump insisted that the shutdown could last for months and years
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) January 4, 2019
Updated
Trump comes out sounding encouraged by today’s talks, which is confusing. Because based on the line he’s drawn in the sand-- the only way talks could have been productive is if Democrats put wall funding on the table. Which they did not.
Trump strikes a different tone while speaking from the Rose Garden alongside Republican leaders: “We had a very, very productive meeting. I think we’ve come a long way."
— Sabrina Siddiqui (@SabrinaSiddiqui) January 4, 2019
Is the person responsible for spell-checking White House communications on furlough thanks to the shutdown?
Answer: No, probably not. The White House has been cranking out spelling and grammatical errors with regularity for nearly two years now.
It’s unclear who Trump’s “top people” are or how amenable to compromise they will be, but McConnell says Trump wants negotiations to occur over the weekend.
Returning from WH, McConnell says “the President agreed to designate his top people” to sit down with “all the leaders’ staffs” this weekend to see if they can come up with an agreement that can then be shown to the principal negotiators, @caphilltrish reports.
— Jordyn Phelps (@JordynPhelps) January 4, 2019
Schumer: Trump would shut down government for months or years
Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are addressing reporters after a meeting with president Trump over the government shutdown, and expressing little evidence of progress.
Pelosi calls it a "lengthy" and "sometimes contentious" conversation with Trump at the White House. She says Democrats can't have discussions over other matters until the government is reopened.
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) January 4, 2019
Schumer: "We made a plea to the president once again .... 'Open up the government and let's continue our discussions.'"
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) January 4, 2019
Schumer says Trump is prepared to keep govt closed for "MONTHS OR EVEN YEARS"
That would mean Americans wouldn't get their tax returns for "months or even years" -- probably not a sustainable position! https://t.co/XXp9gdLo9v
— Joshua Green (@JoshuaGreen) January 4, 2019
Trump is expected to address the meeting in the Rose Garden shortly.
Updated
Two images captured the mood in Washington this week as excited children crowded into the normally staid House of Representatives to help the re-elected speaker, Nancy Pelosi, welcome the most diverse new intake of lawmakers in US history, while Donald Trump surrounded himself with tough guys at a surprise White House press briefing, delivering another hardline push for his wall project on the US-Mexico border.
Amid the ongoing government shutdown and nearly two years into the Trump presidency, US politics looked into the abyss and saw the divide in Washington – but also glimpsed the future.
The most racially diverse and most female group of representatives ever elected to the House in congressional history crowded into the traditionally white and male halls of Capitol Hill for their swearing-in on Thursday afternoon.
They were joined by partners, parents and children who also better reflected the country’s patchwork of identities than Congress traditionally does, and signaled that a more diverse future is inevitable.
In a perhaps intentional nod to forward thinking, Pelosi invited children to join her at the podium after she was handed the gavel and prepared to swear in the dozens of new members – mostly Democrats.
Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib initially came out defiant after describing Trump as a “motherfucker” in a call for impeachment, but fled from press trying to ask her about the comments this morning, including our own Ben Jacobs.
This might be why. From Politico:
House Democrats are furious that an incoming freshman’s expletive-riddled statement about impeaching Donald Trump has suddenly upended their carefully crafted rhetoric on their plans to take on the president.
Rank-and-file Democrats, immediately fearful of the damage the comment could cause, unloaded on their new colleague Friday morning. Republicans, they argued, would hold it up as proof that Democrats are playing politics rather than pursuing genuine oversight of the president — even if the GOP never showed interest in investigating Trump scandals while it was in power.
“Mueller hasn’t even produced his report yet!” said Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wis.), referring to special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe. “People should cool their jets a little bit, let the prosecutors do their job and finish the investigation.”
“Inappropriate,” added Rep. Jim Costa (D-Calif.). “As elected officials I think we should be expected to set a high bar… It’s not helpful.”
Updated
Longtime Republican Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas will not seek re-election in 2020, setting up an intense political scramble to replace him.
Roberts has spent decades in Congress but faced pressure to step aside in part because he would have been 84 when facing voters. He also faced grueling primary and general election contests in 2014.
Roberts began his Capitol Hill career as an aide in 1967. He won a U.S. House seat representing western Kansas in 1980 and was elected to the Senate in 1996. His longevity became a liability during his 2014 campaign.
“I intend to sprint to the finish line,” Pat Roberts says
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) January 4, 2019
There are reports already that GOP leadership is hoping to tap Trump secretary of state Mike Pompeo for the seat.
GOP source says the party is eyeing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as the top recruit for this seat.
— Rebecca Buck (@RebeccaBuck) January 4, 2019
"The list is him," source says. "Pompeo is in a league of his own." But unclear whether Pompeo would have any interest. https://t.co/2z7jjTxmpX
Updated
Freshman Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez is still dancing after a Twitter user’s attempt to shame her for a video she made in college backfired horribly.
I hear the GOP thinks women dancing are scandalous.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 4, 2019
Wait till they find out Congresswomen dance too! 💃🏽
Have a great weekend everyone :) pic.twitter.com/9y6ALOw4F6
Trump has sent a letter to members of Congress from both parties repeating his call for a border wall. Democrats are unlikely to take the letter seriously as it does not even mention DACA or Dreamers, which in the past, has been the one bargaining chip Democrats felt strongly enough about to entertain a compromise on wall funding.
Instead, Trump asks lawmakers to terminate the Flores Settlement Agreement so families can be detained together, and alter law so that unaccompanied minors deported may be deported more quickly.
NEWS — THE PRESIDENT has sent a letter to members of congress of both parties calling for a border wall.
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) January 4, 2019
“Walls work. That’s why rich, powerful, and successful people build them around their homes.” pic.twitter.com/MpIiQT7qkQ
Stock markets are rising on the jobs report after a rocky start to the year. Trump is close to obsessional about the markets and recently said recent wild swings were due to a “glitch”.
But he can also thank Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell for today’s rise. Powell told a conference in Atlanta that the Fed would “adjust policy quickly and flexibly” in the coming months if there were signs of a slowdown. Investors took that as a sign that the Fed may slow its policy of raising interest rates, something Trump has called “crazy”.
Photograph: Carlos Barría/Reuters
Trump has also threatened to fire Powell, although he may not have the legal authority. Such a move would be unprecedented and has scared investors who see an independent central bank as a pillar of the US economic system.
Powell told the conference he wouldn’t resign even if Trump asked him to. That news also cheered Wall Street but it means all eyes - and especially Trump’s - will be on the Fed’s next meeting at the end of January.
While many federal workers go without pay and the government is partially shut down, hundreds of senior Trump political appointees, and Vice President Mike Pence are poised to receive annual raises of about $10,000 a year tomorrow, the Washington Post is reporting:
The pay raises for cabinet secretaries, deputy secretaries, top administrators and even Vice President Pence are scheduled to go into effect beginning Jan. 5 without legislation to stop them, according to documents issued by the Office of Personnel Management and experts in federal pay.
The raises appear to be an intended consequence of the shutdown: When lawmakers failed to pass bills on Dec. 21 to fund multiple federal agencies, they allowed an existing pay freeze to lapse. Congress enacted a law capping pay for top federal executives in 2013 and renewed it each year. The raises will occur because that cap will expire without legislative action by Saturday, allowing raises that have accumulated over those years but never took effect to kick in, starting with paychecks that will be issued next week.
#51?
.@EleanorNorton introduced DC statehood bill, HR51, with 155 cosponsors - the most of any legislation introduced on day 1 of the new Congress.
— Jenna Portnoy (@jennaportnoy) January 4, 2019
Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell says he wouldn’t resign if Trump asked him to. Trump has been highly critical of recent Fed interest rate hikes.
According to Bloomberg News reporter Mike Dorning, Former Fed Chair Janet Yellen is warning that Trump’s attacks could undermine confidence in the central bank. “Obviously the president has a right to comment on the Fed, but I would worry that if it continues, or intensifies, that it could undermine confidence in the Fed,” she said.
NEWS: Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell says he wouldn't resign if Trump asked him to.
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) January 4, 2019
On their first full day in power, House Democrats voted to jump into into a court battle defending the Affordable Care Act as part of their rules package.
To ratchet up pressure on Republicans who campaigned on promises to keep the popular health care protections, they’ll vote again next week on a similar stand-alone measure — authorizing the House’s own general counsel to intervene alongside the Democratic states that Thursday filed an appeal of the ruling that would kill Obamacare.
Said Massachusetts Representative Jim McGovern, the new chairman of the powerful Rules Committee: “We’re on offense.”
“The American people made it very clear in the last election that health care is important, and they don’t want Republicans screwing around with it. And we’re going to have their backs.”
From the Associated Press, new poll shows Americans increasingly concerned with immigration:
As much of the U.S. government remains shut down over President Donald Trump’s insistence on funding for his border wall, nearly half of Americans identify immigration as a top issue for the government to work on this year.
An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll conducted shortly before the shutdown began finds that both Republicans and Democrats are far more likely to include immigration in their list of top issues facing the country this year compared with a year ago.
Overall, 49 percent mentioned immigration in an open-ended question as one of the top five problems they hoped the government addresses in 2019. By contrast, 27 percent mentioned immigration in December 2017.
Partisan divides on the best solutions remain deep. Republicans continue to be more likely to cite immigration as a top issue than Democrats, an indication of the GOP’s greater intensity on the issue. But it’s an increasingly important issue to members of both parties.
The poll found that 65 percent of Republicans say immigration is one of the top five problems facing the country, up from 42 percent in 2017. Among Democrats, 37 percent cite immigration as a top issue, compared with just 2 in 10 a year ago.
Roughly two-thirds of those who named immigration as a top priority express little confidence in the government to make progress this year, including a third who say they are “not at all” confident. About a third say they are at least moderately confident in the government to make progress on immigration. This follows a year of intermittent deadlocked negotiations and standoffs between Trump and Democrats in Congress.
Rashida Tlaib stands by vow to 'impeach the motherfucker'
Newly sworn-in Michigan congresswoman Rashida Tlaib isn’t backing down from her remark Thursday that “we’re going to impeach the motherfucker”, speaking about Donald Trump.
In a statement Friday her office said: “Congresswoman Tlaib was elected to shake up Washington, not continue the status quo.”
It continued: “The Congresswoman absolutely believes he needs to be impeached and ... will not stay silent.”
Tlaib added herself more succinctly on Twitter: “I will always speak truth to power. #unapologeticallyMe”
The remarks came just a few hours after Tlaib was officially sworn into office as one of the two first Muslim women to serve in Congress. Speaking to a crowd at a MoveOn.org event, Tlaib recalled the moment she won her election in November.
“And when your son looks at you and says, ‘Mama look, you won. Bullies don’t win,’ and I said, ‘Baby, they don’t,’ because we’re gonna go in there and we’re going to impeach the motherfucker.”
The comment received mixed approval on the hill. Democratic House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler told CNN early Friday morning: “I don’t really like that kind of language, but more to the point, I disagree with what she said. It is too early to talk about that intelligently. We have to follow the facts.”
If you think Rashida Tlaib is suddenly going to apologize, or that House Dems are going to immediately outright condemn her, you haven't been paying attention to either Rashida Tlaib or to what House Dems are *actually* saying about impeachment.
— Gabriel Debenedetti (@gdebenedetti) January 4, 2019
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said earlier this week that her caucus would not rule out impeachment but would not rush to that possibility either, and would at least wait until special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation concludes.
“We shouldn’t be impeaching for a political reason, and we shouldn’t avoid impeachment for a political reason,” Pelosi said.
Trump responded to the impeachment talk on Twitter Friday morning, arguing: “How do you impeach a president who has won perhaps the greatest election of all time, done nothing wrong (no Collusion with Russia, it was the Dems that Colluded), had the most successful first two years of any president, and is the most popular Republican in party history 93%?”
Updated
The Trump administration has stopped cooperating with UN investigators over potential human rights violations occurring inside America, in a move that delivers a major blow to vulnerable US communities and sends a dangerous signal to authoritarian regimes around the world, our Ed Pilkington reports.
Quietly and unnoticed, the state department has ceased to respond to official complaints from UN special rapporteurs, the network of independent experts who act as global watchdogs on fundamental issues such as poverty, migration, freedom of expression and justice. There has been no response to any such formal query since 7 May 2018, with at least 13 requests going unanswered.
Read more:
The Wall Street Journal editorial board published a column Friday calling recent comments by Donald Trump about US allies and Russian militarism a “mockery”, “slander”, “reprehensible”, and “utterly false”.
The comments from Trump came during a cabinet meeting Wednesday in which Trump first demeaned troop commitments from other nations in a diatribe about the US not being taken advantage of by other world governments.
Trump said, “They tell me a hundred times, ‘Oh, we sent you soldiers. We sent you soldiers’...
“I’ve heard past presidents, ‘Well, they’re involved in the Afghanistan war because they sent us 100 soldiers.’ And yet, it’s costing us billions and billions of dollars.”
The Journal called Trump’s assessment “a slander against every ally that has supported the U.S. effort in Afghanistan with troops who fought and often died.”
The editorial took even more umbrage at this historically illiterate and nonsensical statement about the late 1970s Russian incursion into Afghanistan.
Here’s the thing — because mentioned India: India is there. Russia is there. Russia used to be the Soviet Union. Afghanistan made it Russia, because they went bankrupt fighting in Afghanistan. Russia. So you take a look at other countries. Pakistan is there; they should be fighting. But Russia should be fighting.
“The reason Russia was in Afghanistan was because terrorists were going into Russia. They were right to be there.”
“Right to be there?” responded the editorial. “We cannot recall a more absurd misstatement of history by an American President. The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan with three divisions in December 1979 to prop up a fellow communist government.”
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Updated
US adds 312,000 jobs in December, far surpassing expectations
The US added 312,000 jobs in December, a huge rise well above forecasts, as the unemployment rate rose to 3.9% as more people entered the job market looking for work.
Economists had been expecting the US to add about 180,000 new jobs in December, up from November’s 155,000 jobs.
The US has now added jobs for 99 consecutive months – the longest streak of job creation since records began. Numbers for November and October were also revised up by a total of 58,000. The economy added 2.64m jobs over 2018, the third-best year for job growth since the recession a decade ago.
There was good news for workers on wages too. Average hourly earnings climbed by a seasonally adjusted 0.4% from November and were up 3.2% from a year earlier, their largest gain since 2008.
Wages have lagged behind the recovery in the jobs market since the end of the last recession. But while the latest rise will be a boon to workers it will also stoke fears of further interest rate rises this year - a scenario that has rattled stock markets in recent months.
Trump and Democrats remain at odds over border wall funding
Good morning. It’s day 14 of the partial government shutdown, and there’s no end in sight as Donald Trump and the newly minted Democratic House majority remain at an impasse over funding for a border wall.
Trump has invited congressional leadership back to the White House on Friday to continue negotiations, but there’s no reason to believe Democrats will budge in denying Trump’s request for wall funding.
In her first news conference since reclaiming the role of speaker of the House on Thursday, Democrat Nancy Pelosi dug in her heels over Trump’s wall calling it “a waste of money” and “an immorality”, according to CNN.
Pelosi added: “We’re not doing a wall. Does anybody have any doubt? We are not doing a wall.”
Asked if she would give Trump $1 for a wall to reopen the government, Pelosi said:
One dollar? Yeah, one dollar. The fact is a wall is an immorality. It’s not who we are as a nation.”
Late Thursday the newly sworn-in Democratic House majority voted to fund the government and end the shutdown, but Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has said he will not waste the Senate’s time passing a bill that Trump won’t sign.
The White House meeting is slated for 11.30am.
Updated
