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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Gabrielle Canon in Oakland (now) Ben Jacobs in Washington (earlier) and Erin Durkin (earlier) in New York

Virginia crisis: senate leader edited yearbook with racist photos – as it happened

Protesters rally against the Virginia governor, Ralph Northam, outside of the governor’s mansion in downtown Richmond.
Protesters rally against the Virginia governor, Ralph Northam, outside of the governor’s mansion in downtown Richmond. Photograph: Logan Cyrus/AFP/Getty Images

Summary

Signing off for the night. Here’s what happened Thursday evening:

  • Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos alleged that the owner of the National Enquirer threatened to post nude photos of him if he didn’t stop an investigation into how the tabloid got his “intimate text messages” a few weeks ago. Read more here, from my colleague Sam Levin:
  • Acting attorney general Matt Whitaker is still expected to appear before the House Judiciary Committee tomorrow, after insisting he’d only answer questions if the House Democrats, who are newly in charge, pledge not to use their subpoena power. Chairman Nadler responded that Whitaker would only get a subpoena if he failed to give them answers.
  • The New York Times broke a story that the Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman called for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi in statements a year before the journalist was killed.

See you tomorrow!

According to the Associated Press, the United Nations human rights office has called out the US for force-feeding immigrant detainees, who are on hunger strike in Texas, saying it might be a violation of the Convention Against Torture.

The statement followed pushback from 14 Democrats who sent a letter to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement today, describing how one 22-year-old asylum seeker “was dragged from his cell three times a day and strapped down on the bed as a group of people poured liquid into tubes inserted into his nose”.

From the AP:

Hunger strikes are relatively uncommon inside ICE detention. Last month, ICE began non-consensual feeding and hydration of numerous El Paso detainees after a federal judge issued a court order allowing them to be force-fed against their will.

‘ICE is committed to preserving the lives of those in its custody and maintaining orderly detention facility operations,’ the agency said Thursday in response to the U.N.’s statement. ‘For their health and safety, ICE closely monitors the food and water intake of those detainees identified as being on a hunger strike. Medical staff constantly monitor detainees to evaluate whether the hunger strike poses a risk to the detainee’s life or permanent health’”.

Amazon billionaire and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos is accusing the publisher of the National Enquirer of blackmail, alleging that the tabloid made threats to publish more of his photos unless he stop an investigation into how they got the photos and intimate texts during his high-profile divorce.

After Bezos hired Gavin de Becker, a private security consultant, David Pecker, AMI’s chief executive and a close Trump ally was allegedly “apoplectic”, which prompted the emailed threats describing photos the National Enquirer could still release.

From my colleague Sam Levin:

The email, which Bezos published in full, with redactions of personal information, went on to say that the Enquirer had obtained a “below the belt selfie — otherwise colloquially known as a ‘d*ck pick’” as well as nine other images. Those included a selfie, a shirtless photo of him holding his phone “while wearing his wedding ring”, a “full-length body selfie” of him in his underwear, and photos and messages from Laura Sanchez, a former TV anchor.

‘It would give no editor pleasure to send this email. I hope common sense can prevail — and quickly,’ Howard allegedly wrote.In his blogpost Bezos explained his decision to publish the emails, writing, ‘Any personal embarrassment AMI could cause me takes a back seat because there’s a much more important matter involved here. If in my position I can’t stand up to this kind of extortion, how many people can?’”

Pecker is also part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, after playing a role in helping Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen pay off former Playboy model Karen McDougal, in order to stop her from releasing details about her affair with Trump during his campaign in 2016. Pecker paid $150,000 as part of a “catch and kill” scheme that gave his publication the sole rights to the story.

Here is a long profile on Pecker and his relationship with the President from Guardian reporter Lucia Graves:

Updated

Jeff Bezos accuses National Enquirer owner of blackmail

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has accused the owner of the National Enquirer of “extortion and blackmail” in an extraordinary blogpost alleging that the tabloid threatened to public nude images of him.

The world’s richest man, who also owns the Washington Post, published a lengthy Medium post on Thursday, accusing American Media Inc (AMI), which publishes the National Enquirer, of telling him “they had more of my text messages and photos that they would publish if we didn’t stop our investigation”.

Bezos, who recently became the subject of tabloid fodder after he and his wife announced they were divorcing, wrote that he had “engaged investigators” after the National Enquirer published his “intimate text messages” a few weeks ago. He said he was seeking “to determine the motives for the many unusual actions taken by the Enquirer”.

More to come.

Updated

Jared Kushner is heading to the Middle East this month, Politico reports, to plug his new peace plan. While details have not been released, the plan is expected to include economic proposals aimed to bring incentives and opportunities for Palestinians, which have been in the works for the past two years.

He will spend a week at the end of February in Oman, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, joined by officials from Trump’s Middle East envoy and the State Department.

Per Politico:

‘Part of this is intended to show they’re really serious about presenting something’ said Dennis Ross, a veteran peace process negotiator. ‘I think the key is going to be Arab leaders being persuaded that the overall deal — not just the economic side but the political side — looks credible to them’.

The incentives would have to overcome Palestinian hostility to Trump’s overtures, particularly since the Trump administration last year moved the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which the Palestinians do not recognize as Israel’s capital. The White House also evicted the Palestine Liberation Authority from its offices in Washington, D.C., last year as retribution for the Palestinians’ refusal to enter into direct talks with the Israelis”.

The New York Times is reporting that American intelligence agencies have evidence that Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman played a key role in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and had voiced plans a year before the grisly killing took place.

Per the New York Times:

The Saudi government has denied that the young crown prince played any role in the killing, and President Trump has publicly shown little interest in trying get the facts about who was responsible. Prince Mohammed, the next in line to the Saudi throne behind his ailing father, King Salman, has become the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia and a close ally of the Trump White House — especially Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser”.

The White House has also weighed in on the Whitaker situation, framing Chairman Nadler’s inquiry as a political ploy.

“The fact Chairman Nadler would try to force the public disclosure of private conversations that he knows are protected by law proves he only wants to play politics. The Chairman should focus on helping the American people, rather than wasting time playing pointless political games”, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement.

For more context about what this spat is all about, here’s a good explainer from Vox:

On Thursday, the House Judiciary Committee authorized a subpoena for Whitaker, which Chair Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) said he would use only if Whitaker refused to answer the committee’s questions.

But Whitaker fired back, saying through a letter from the Justice Department that he would not testify at all if the committee issued a subpoena. The DOJ demanded a response, in writing, by 6 pm Thursday...

But Democrats still want to find out how — and why — Whitaker was appointed, and what conversations he’s had with the White House before and during his time as acting attorney general about the Mueller investigation. And they’re clearly prepared to use subpoena power if Whitaker doesn’t cooperate”.

Updated

Representative Jerry Nadler, the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee has issued a response to acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker who refused to come to an oversight hearing scheduled tomorrow, unless he is guaranteed he won’t face a subpoena.

“If you appear before the Committee tomorrow morning and it fyou are prepared to respond to questions from our Members, then I assure you that there will be no need for the Committee to issue a subpoena on or before February 8” Nadler wrote.

The Department of Justice has not yet responded to the letter.

Gabrielle Canon here, taking over for Ben Jacobs for the afternoon.

The Associated Press writes that a newly unsealed court transcript in Paul Manafort’s criminal case reveals details about an August 2016 meeting at the “heart” of the Russia investigation:

A prosecutor for special counsel Robert Mueller says the meeting between Manafort and Konstantin Kilimnik goes to the “larger view of what we think is going on” and what “we think the motive here is”.

Previous court documents have revealed that one of the topics discussed by Manafort and Kilimnik was a possible peace plan to resolve the Russia-Ukraine conflict in Crimea.

The comments came during a hearing over whether Manafort lied to investigators and violated the terms of his plea agreement. Many details from the transcript are blacked out”.

Emily Holden and Lauren Gambino report from DC:

The Green New Deal pioneers on Capitol Hill insist they have support for the radical plan from Democratic leadership, despite comments from House Leader Nancy Pelosi calling it the “green dream” and noting that the sweeping plan is just one of many proposals for combating climate change.

The resolution unveiled by New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Massachusetts senator Ed Markey this morning has at least 60 co-sponsors in the House and around a dozen in the Senate, according to the authors. No Republicans are on board.

Supporters include a handful of presidential contenders, including Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Jeff Merkley, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren. Lawmakers were still signing on today.

The plan calls for fighting inequity with a huge investment in cleaner energy and aims for a carbon-neutral economy within 10 years.

Asked at a crowded press conference about Pelosi’s comments that the resolution is a “green dream,” Ocasio-Cortez said it “is a green dream,” because it is so ambitious. Markey called Pelosi an original climate change champion.

The speaker later said she was “very excited” about a Green New Deal and welcomed “all the enthusiasm” surrounding the proposal.

Pelosi has named members of a climate change select committee, and Ocasio-Cortez is not one of them, but she said that was by the freshman lawmaker’s choice. Ocasio-Cortez said the committee will investigate, while lawmakers on other panels will work on legislative solutions.

The US over time has contributed more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere than any other nation, and Ocasio-Cortez said it is obligated to lead on climate change.

Senator John Barrasso, a Republican of Wyoming, called the plan a “socialist manifesto” that would “take our growing economy off the cliff and our nation into bankruptcy”.

The official response from the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) was simply: “LOL.”

For more about the Green New Deal:

Summary

  • Virginia had yet another top politician in a blackface scandal when it was revealed that the state senate majority leader edited a yearbook with blackface pictures
  • The outlines of the much touted “Green New Deal” were introduced on Capitol Hill today by a number of Democrats including freshman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
  • The nomination of William Barr to be Attorney General was advanced by the Senate Judiciary Committee on a party line vote.

The Federal Election Commission announced today that the maximum contribution an individual could make to a candidate for federal office per election is now $2800, up from $2700 in the 2018 election cycle. This means the individual maximum for both a primary and general combined is $5600.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the United States has set an end of April deadline to pull all American forces out of Syria.

The planned withdrawal comes months after Trump announced his intention to pull out of Syria, which prompted the resignation of Defense Secretary James Mattis.

Per the WSJ:

With U.S.-backed fighters poised to seize the final Syrian sanctuaries held by Islamic State in the coming days, the U.S. military is turning its attention toward a withdrawal of American forces in the coming weeks, these officials said on Thursday.

Unless the Trump administration alters course, the military plans to pull a significant portion of its forces out by mid-March, with a full withdrawal coming by the end of April, they said.

The military-planning process comes as the Trump administration is struggling to come up with an agreement to protect Kurdish allies from being attacked by Turkish forces when the U.S. leaves.

Not just politics but cocktail parties have been turned upside because of Donald Trump. His arrival in Washington has shaken up the elite social scene that defined “This Town.

Ryan Lizza in Esquire reports:

Meanwhile, the widely attended major events that once lubricated relations between various strata of official D. C.—Congress, the press, the White House, the ambassadorial class, the lobbying world—have been blown up by the Trumps. Two of the biggest annual nights in Washington, the White House Correspondents’ dinner and the Kennedy Center Honors, revolve around the president’s participation. In 2017, several reporters (I was one of them) publicly suggested that it wasn’t appropriate to toast a president who was vilifying us. Trump preemptively responded to the nascent revolt by announcing he wouldn’t come anyway.

The same year, when some Kennedy honorees said they would boycott a White House reception, Trump canceled the event and refused to attend the gala at the Kennedy Center. Both weekends are now much more low-key affairs. In December, Trump called off the annual White House holiday party for the press. Fox News, which broke the story, pointed out that even Bill Clinton had hosted the event and posed for endless pictures just days after he was impeached in 1998.

New surveillance video of Roger Stone’s arrest has just been released. And Stone, known for his strong views on fashion, is wearing a unique outfit; a shirt that says “Roger Stone did nothing wrong.”

Updated

Kamala Harris has just unveiled a raft of endorsements in her home state of California.

The 2020 Democratic presidential contender announced the endorsement of President Pro Tem of the State Senate, Toni Atkins and endorsement from 19 other of the 28 Democrats in the California state senate. She now has the support of 21 of the 28 Democrats in her home state’s upper chamber and has solidified her claim to be the favorite daughter of the state.

Jaime Harrison, the former chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party, has officially started an exploratory committee to mount a Senate race against three-term Republican Lindsay Graham.

Harrison faces an uphill battle in a state that Trump won by a margin of 55%-40%.

The next head of a State Department counter propaganda effort will be a former Fox News reporter.

CNN reports that Lea Gabrielle has been tapped to be the next special envoy and coordinator of the Global Engagement Center.

According to CNN:

Gabrielle was a general assignment reporter for “Shepard Smith Reporting,” according to her Fox News biography, and was previously a military reporter. A friend of Gabrielle’s told CNN in September that she was leaving Fox News and moving to Washington, DC.

Gabrielle is a United States Naval Academy graduate and served in the US Navy as fighter pilot for more than a decade, as well as taking part in some intelligence operations. She has said that her time in the Navy made her a better reporter. “I know how important it is that those who wear combat boots have their voices heard and their perspectives understood in news reporting,” Gabrielle said during a 2016 interview with fightersweep.com. “My goal as I report on military topics is always to honor them ... by getting it right.”

Virginia’s congressional delegation is due to come out with a statement in support of state attorney general Mark Herring, who admitted earlier this week to appearing in blackface at a college party when he was 19-years-old. The state has been in crisis with all three of its top statewide elected official facing scandal, two of them blackface-related.

Updated

Although Virginia is still consumed with ongoing series of political scandals, Florida is still doing its best to be just as dysfunctional.

Nancy Oakley, a city commissioner in Madeira Beach, resigned earlier this week after an ethics complaint was upheld that she had a “habit of licking men that either she was attracted to or thought that she had authority over.”

Updated

Elizabeth Warren has made another tranche of key hires in Iowa ahead of her expected announcement on Saturday.

The most notable is Jason Noble, the former chief politics reporter at the Des Moines Register to be her communications director.

Noble had previously worked for Let America Vote, the voting rights non-profit led by former Missouri secretary of state Jason Kander.

Vice President Mike Pence will visit the Port of Baltimore on Friday. It is one of the biggest ports in the country and will represent a rare visit by top Trump administration official to a major urban area.

Trump had canceled a scheduled visit to Baltimore last month during the partial government shutdown.

In light of the ongoing series of scandals in Virginia surrounding blackface, it’s worth noting that only 58% of Americans find it “unacceptable” to wear blackface.

As the Washington Post reports:

The poll, conducted Saturday through Tuesday by the firm YouGov, asked respondents: “Is it acceptable or unacceptable for a White person to wear blackface make up?” Although 58 percent said “unacceptable,” 16 percent said “acceptable” and 26 percent said that they were not sure. In other words, 42 percent of Americans either endorse blackface or do not have a clear opinion on it.

Perhaps, though, this finding isn’t that surprising. Earlier YouGov polls also revealed tolerance for blackface. A 2013 poll found 43 percent said it was acceptable for white people to wear blackface to dress up as a black person for Halloween. Only 37 percent opposed this. A 2015 poll found slightly more support for blackface costumes: 47 percent said it was acceptable.

A Customs and Border Protection officer has been charged with illegally selling guns, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Wei Xu, a CBP watch commander, used his status as a law enforcement officer to buy handguns not available to the public and then sold them, authorities say. He was charged with selling or transferring at least 70 guns since 2014 without a license.

Senator John Barrasso, a Republican of Wyoming, called the Green New Deal plan released today a “socialist manifesto” that would “take our growing economy off the cliff and our nation into bankruptcy”.

“It’s the first step down a dark path to socialism.” he warned in a statement.

The official response from the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) was simply “LOL”, which is internet slang stands for “laughing out loud”. A link in the statement directed viewers to a gif of actor Ryan Gosling laughing.

In statements targeting moderate and swing state Democrats, Republicans dismissed the plan as “ridiculous” and asked whether this meant the Democrats supported banning air travel and eliminating all jobs in the energy industry.

Updated

The NAACP is urging the Senate judiciary committee to reject judicial nominees who refused to say that Brown v Board of Education, the landmark supreme court case that ended segregation in schools, was rightly decided.

Updated

Georgia representative Rob Woodall will not seek re-election, per the Atlanta Journal Constitution. It’s a seat likely to be targeted by Democrats.

Updated

Virginia senate leader edited yearbook full of racist photos and slurs

Another Virginia politician is in hot water over racist content in a yearbook.

State senate majority leader Tommy Norment oversaw a yearbook at the Virginia Military Institute in 1968 that contains a host of racist photos and slurs, the Virginian-Pilot reports. They include photos of people wearing blackface.

Norment, a Republican, was managing editor of the yearbook. It features a photo of a student in blackface at a costume party and another photo of two men in blackface holding a football.

It gets worse: the yearbook uses the N-word at least once. It also uses the slurs “Chink” and “Jap” to refer to a student from Thailand. And another student is described as a “Barracks Jew” for his involvement in classmates’ financial affairs.

Updated

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer will oppose William Barr’s nomination for attorney general, he says in a speech on the Senate floor.

The Green New Deal released today by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has a notable omission: it does not contain any mention of legislative or regulatory restrictions on carbon emissions, a CNN reporter notes.

Updated

More optimism on a border security deal from Senator Richard Shelby after his budget meeting with Donald Trump.

Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker issued a statement on his threat not to testify before the House Judiciary Committee.

The committee “has deviated from historic practice and protocol and taken the unnecessary and premature step of authorizing a subpoena to the me, the Acting Attorney General, even though I had agreed to voluntarily appear,” Whitaker said, according to the Hill.

The committee voted earlier Thursday to authorize a subpoena of Whitaker, which could be used to compel him to answer certain questions if he refuses to answer them voluntarily.

“Such unprecedented action breaches our prior agreement and circumvents the constitutionally required accommodation process. Based upon today’s action, it is apparent that the Committee’s true intention is not to discuss the great work of the Department of Justice, but to create a public spectacle. Political theater is not the purpose of an oversight hearing, and I will not allow that to be the case,” Whitaker said. “Consistent with longstanding practice, I remain willing to appear to testify tomorrow, provided that the Chairman assures me that the Committee will not issue a subpoena today or tomorrow, and that the Committee will engage in good faith negotiations before taking such a step down the road.”

House speaker Nancy Pelosi expressed optimism Thursday over prospects of congressional negotiators hammering out a border security deal before a 15 February deadline, Reuters reports.

From Reuters:

A bipartisan group of 17 members of the House of Representatives and Senate have been meeting behind closed doors to try to break an impasse over Trump’s demand for $5.7bn this year to build a wall along the US-Mexico border.

Pelosi, who says she will not meddle in the negotiations, had held a firm line against any money for building a wall, sparking a stand-off with Trump that resulted in a 35-day partial government shutdown that began on 22 December.

In her weekly press conference on Thursday, Pelosi told reporters: “Hopefully we will get some good news in a short period of time and certainly in time for the deadline of 15 February.”

She did not provide any details what kind of border security measures might be funded in any deal to keep the Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies operating through the end of this fiscal year on 30 September.

“Just let them do their work,” Pelosi said of the panel appointed to broker a border security funding agreement.

Negotiators have talked about a mix of border security tools, such as more law enforcement agents, procuring more high-tech devices to repel illegal drugs and undocumented immigrants from entering the United States and additional physical barriers.

A lead negotiator, Senate appropriations committee chairman Richard Shelby, who is a Republican, met at the White House on Thursday morning to talk to Trump about the ongoing negotiations, according to a Senate aide.

No further details on that meeting were immediately available.

Updated

A group of Democratic lawmakers will visit the US-Mexico border this weekend, CNN reports.

House majority leader Steny Hoyer will travel Saturday with a group of newly-elected congresswomen to Texas and New Mexico, where they will meet with US Customs and Border Protection and immigration advocates.

“Despite the president’s demagoguery over immigration, there is not a national emergency or a security crisis at the border that demands a wall,” Hoyer said Thursday, according to CNN.

The trip comes as Democrats and Republicans are trying to work out a border security deal before government funding expires next week.

Updated

The Justice Department is saying that acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker will not testify before the House Judiciary Committee Friday unless he is assured he will not be subpoenaed to answer questions, according to journalist Shimon Prokupecz.

Earlier Thursday, the Judiciary Committee voted to authorize a subpoena of Whitaker. Committee chair Jerry Nadler says he hopes not to have to actually use the subpoena, but will do so if Whitaker refuses to answer certain questions about his conversations with the White House about the Russia investigation.

Senate judiciary committee approves William Barr for attorney general

Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general has been approved by the Senate judiciary committee.

The committee voted 12-10 along party lines to approve the nomination of William Barr, Politico reports.

The full Senate could vote later this month.

Senator Doug Jones said Thursday that he would vote for the nomination, becoming the first Democrat to do so, according to the Hill.

Updated

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested Thursday that Democrats will pursue Donald Trump’s tax returns.

“I think overwhelmingly the public wants to see the president’s tax returns,” Pelosi said at a press conference when asked if she thinks it’s important for Congress to obtain the documents, the Hill reported. “They want to know the truth. They want to know the facts. And he has nothing to hide.”

But Pelosi added Democrats have to be “very, very careful” in pursuing the taxes. The law gives the House the power to obtain any citizen’s tax returns from the IRS, but making them public may be a more complicated matter.

A vast majority of Americans want special counsel Robert Mueller’s full Russia investigation report to be made public, according to a new poll.

In the CNN poll, 87% of respondents said investigators should produce a full public report. Meanwhile, 48% said they believe Donald Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia to help get him elected, while 42% said there was no collusion.

HHS official: Agency never supported child separation policy

Officials at the Department of Health and Human Services opposed the policy of separating immigrant children from their parents, a top official there told Congress Thursday.

“I do not believe that separation of children from their parents is in the best interest of the child,” Commander Jonathan White told a House oversight subcommittee, CNN reported.

“Neither I nor any career person in (the Office of Refugee Resettlement) would ever have supported such a policy proposal.”

The refugee resettlement office within HHS is responsible for running shelters to care for immigrant children who cross the border on their own or are separated from their parents. The Trump administration put in place a since-reversed zero tolerance policy which called for adults to be prosecuted for crossing the border illegally, requiring them to be separated from their children. The kids were then put in care of HHS.

The comments came at an oversight hearing on the child separation policy.

HHS Secretary Alex Azar refused to testify, according to CNN.

Updated

Senator Kamala Harris called the sexual assault allegations against Virginia’s lieutenant governor “credible” and called for an investigation Thursday.

“I think there should be an investigation to determine what happened,” Harris said of the allegations against Justin Fairfax, Politico reports.

“Certainly her letter reads — it’s quite detailed — and suggests that there’s credibility there. But there needs to be an investigation to determine what exactly happened,” said the California senator and presidential candidate.

The House of Representatives kicked off hearings Thursday on the Trump administration’s policy of separating immigrant children from their parents.

Democrats at the hearing blasted the policy, Politico reports.

“There is no evidence that [Department of Health and Human Services] leaders ever tried to stop this abhorrent policy,” said Rep. Diana DeGette, chair of the Energy and Commerce’s oversight subcommittee. “As the agency dedicated to the health and welfare of children, we need to know why.”

Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Illinois called the administration’s actions “state-sponsored child abuse and, I would go as far to say, kidnapping of children,” according to BuzzFeed.

Many federal workers still haven't received shutdown back pay

Nearly two weeks after the end of the longest government shutdown in U.S history, many federal workers still have not received their back pay or have only gotten a fraction of what they are owed as government agencies struggle with payroll glitches and other delays, the Associated Press reports.

From AP:

And even as they scramble to catch up on unpaid bills and to repay unemployment benefits, the prospect of another shutdown looms next week.

“President Trump stood in the Rose Garden at the end of the shutdown and said, ‘We will make sure that you guys are paid immediately.’ ... And here it is, it’s almost two weeks later,” said Michael Walter, who works for the U.S. Department of Agriculture food safety inspection service in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and only got his paycheck Wednesday. He said two co-workers told him they still had received nothing.

The government has been short on details about how many people are still waiting to be paid.

Bradley Bishop, a spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget, said the Trump administration had taken “unprecedented steps to ensure federal employees impacted by the shutdown received back pay within a week.” He didn’t respond to questions about how many people still hadn’t been paid.

Congress gets closer to border funding deal

Senate Appropriations committee chair Richard Shelby briefed Donald Trump on the state of border security negotiations Thursday, and there appears to be some hope for a deal.

Democrats and Republicans have been trading offers back and forth, and any deal will likely include new money for border security technology and possibly new fencing, Politico reports.

The wild card remains Donald Trump, and whether he’ll be willing to accept a deal that doesn’t give him the $5 billion he wants to build a border wall.

“Everybody is feeling increasingly upbeat about the possibility of getting a deal. The question is whether it’s something the president can sign,” Sen. John Thune of South Dakota told Politico. “I don’t think anyone knows the answer to that.”

Negotiators are hoping to strike a deal by Sunday night. The three week funding bill that the parties agreed to to end the government shutdown expires on Feb. 15.

Updated

President Donald Trump’s call for a ban on late-term abortions is unlikely to prevail in Congress, but Republican legislators in several states are pushing ahead with their own tough anti-abortion bills that they hope can pass muster with the Supreme Court, the Associated Press reports.

From AP:

Two bills proposing to outlaw abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, advanced out of House and Senate committees in the Mississippi Legislature this week. GOP Gov. Phil Bryant is pledging to sign either into law.

Efforts to pass similar bills are underway in Florida, Kentucky, Ohio, South Carolina and Tennessee.

In Ohio, former Republican Gov. John Kasich twice vetoed the measure; his successor, Republican Mike DeWine, has said he would sign it. In Tennessee, Republican Gov. Bill Lee and the top two GOP state lawmakers say they support the measure.

Iowa passed a heartbeat bill last year that was struck down by a state judge on Jan. 22. In response, many GOP lawmakers are trying to place a proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot that would stipulate there is no right to abortion in Iowa.

South Carolina, in addition to a heartbeat bill, will consider a measure introduced Wednesday that would broadly ban abortions and allow the possibility of criminal charges against individuals who perform them.

Trump, in his State of the Union speech Tuesday night, cited recent controversies in New York and Virginia over late-term abortions, and urged Congress “to prohibit the late-term abortion of children who can feel pain in a mother’s womb.”

Senator Richard Shelby says he expects there will be a government funding deal over the weekend or on Monday, according to Bloomberg News.

First Lady Melania Trump spoke to an anti-drug conference Thursday, saying “recovery is possible.”

The Associated Press reports:

The first lady traveled to Maryland on Thursday to address the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America’s annual youth leadership forum. Her signature “Be Best” campaign focuses on a number of issues, including the opioid crisis.

Mrs. Trump spoke about a former opioid and substance abuse addict who joined her for Tuesday’s State of the Union address.

The first lady says Ashley Evans received treatment at an Ohio facility, has been in recovery for over a year and looks forward to being reunited with her daughter.

Mrs. Trump says Evans’ story shows that “recovery is possible” and that community programs can help make a difference.

The first lady was also visiting the Office of National Drug Control Policy for a briefing.

Spending on last year’s Congressional elections topped $5.7 billion - a record high.

The tally from the Center for Responsive Politics includes spending by candidates, outside groups, parties, and political action committees, CNN reports.

The House Judiciary Committee has voted to authorize a subpoena for acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker, CNN reports.

The vote was 23-13, along party lines with Democrats voting for it and Republicans opposed.

Whitaker is set to testify before the committee Friday, and chairman Jerry Nadler says he will use the subpoena if the acting AG refuses to answer questions about his conversations with the White House about the Russia investigation.

“To be clear, this resolution merely authorizes the subpoena. If Mr. Whitaker appears in the hearing room, as scheduled, and if he provides direct answers to our questions, then I have no intention of ever issuing this subpoena. If he does not, then we will have the tools we need to ensure that we may adequately meet our own responsibilities,” Nadler said in a statement Thursday.

“When we invite officials to testify before this Committee, they have to appear. When we ask them questions, they have to provide us with answers—or provide us with a valid and clearly articulated reason to withhold certain information. Without the threat of a subpoena, I believe it may be difficult to hold Mr. Whitaker to this standard.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is dodging questions about the political crisis in Virginia, saying she has enough to do without getting involved in the state’s affairs.

Senate Democratic whip Dick Durbin gave a similar non-answer, saying “I don’t live there” and “I’m not getting into that,” journalist Matt Laslo reports.

Virginia lieutenant governor Justin Fairfax has hired the same law firm that represented Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Politico reports.

Fairfax, who has been accused of sexual assault, brought on Wilkinson Walsh Eskovitz, which also represented Kavanaugh during confirmation hearings where he battled charges of assault.

And his accuser, college professor Vanessa Tyson, hired the firm Katz Marshall and Banks, which also represented Kavanaugh’s accuser.

The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing in March on the deaths of two children in border patrol custody, its chairman said Thursday.

Two lawmakers are demanding information from the National Rifle Association about allegations the powerful gun group violated campaign finance laws.

Watchdog groups have alleged that the NRA illegally coordinated with Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. The Trace reported that the conservative consulting firm National Media Research and its affiliates executed ad buys for Trump and the NRA that seemed coordinated to enhance each other.

In a letter to NRA president Wayne Lapierre, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse and Rep. Jamie Raskin asked for information on the NRA’s relationship with media consulting firms that also worked for the Trump Campaign and other Republican candidates. They also sent letters to five of the media consulting firms.

“Because a payment for a coordinated communication is an in-kind contribution to a candidate, the NRA may have violated contribution limits under the Federal Election Campaign Act by making coordinated communications in excess of applicable contribution caps,” they wrote.

Donald Trump in his remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast praised his vice president’s wife Karen Pence for her work at a school that bans gay students and staff.

“Our incredible second lady Karen Pence and by the way, by the way, I’ve gotten to know Karen so well. She is a Marine Corps mom, a tremendous woman, a proud supporter of military families and she just recently went back to teaching art classes at a Christian school. Thank you. Thank you, Karen,” Trump said at the breakfast, CNN reported.

He did not mention the Christian school’s LGBT policies.

The Committee to Protect Journalists and other press freedom organizations are holding a press conference outside the White House to demand justice for murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The event comes ahead of a Friday deadline for the Trump administration to deliver a report to the Senate on the journalist’s murder. In the report, the administration is required to say whether they believe Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is responsible for Khashoggi’s murder, and to say whether they will impose sanctions, according to CBS.

The Federal Election Commission has issued new contribution limits for the 2020 election cycle.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has named members to the new select committee on climate change, but Politico reports they don’t include the highest-profile freshmen like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Rep. Kathy Castor of Florida will chair the committee, according to the Politico report. The Democratic members are Ben Ray Luján (N.M.), Suzanne Bonamici (Ore.), Julia Brownley (Calif.), Sean Casten (Ill.), Jared Huffman (Calif.), Mike Levin (Calif.), Donald McEachin (Va.) and Joe Neguse (Colo.).

Sen. Kamala Harris and Rep. Brenda Lawrence have introduced a bill to award Aretha Franklin the Congressional Gold Medal.

“Aretha’s songs were the soundtrack of my childhood, from listening to ‘Mary Don’t You Weep,’ to standing in the living room dancing to ‘Rock Steady’ over and over again, to hearing from the Queen herself how lucky I was to be young, gifted and black,” Harris told the Beat DC. “Aretha was simply a legend.”

Updated

Donald Trump weighed in on abortion in his remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast, per PBS.

The comments come after he proposed a federal ban on late term abortion in his State of the Union speech. He’s trying to reverse laws like on recently passed in New York, which allows abortions after 24 weeks to protect the health of the mother or if the fetus is not viable.

Trump also made a verbal slip, saying that many of America’s great accomplishments including the “abolition of civil rights” were driven by people of faith.

Updated

A scandal centered on the use of blackface is rocking Virginia politics, but a new poll finds that not everyone has a problem with white people wearing blackface.

In the YouGov poll, a clear majority - 58% - did say it was unacceptable for a white person to wear blackface makeup. But that leaves 16% who said it was acceptable, and 26% who aren’t sure. 73% of black respondents said it was unacceptable, compared to 57% of whites. There was a clear party divide as well, with 81% of Democrats calling blackface unacceptable, while only 44% of Republicans did.

Asked if Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam should resign after a photo from his yearbook page surfaced showing a man wearing KKK robes and another in blackface, 40% said he should, 30% said he should not, and another 30% weren’t sure.

Donald Trump claimed in his tweet storm earlier today that the Republican-controlled Congress never investigated President Barack Obama. This is not true. Congress conducted a lengthy probe of the Benghazi attacks, in addition to investigations into allegations of political bias at the IRS and other matters.

Read the Washington Post’s fact check here.

Donald Trump spoke this morning at the National Prayer Breakfast.

“I will never let you down,” he told the religious crowd, according to CBS News.

House Democrats will hold their first hearing Thursday morning on a bill that would require presidents to disclose their tax returns, CNN reports.

Donald Trump has been the first president in modern history to refuse to release his taxes.

The hearing before a House ways and means subcommittee panel will focus on a provision in a broader ethics bill that would require future presidents and presidential candidates to release ten years of tax returns. The bill doesn’t apply to the current occupant of the White House, but Congress also has the power to obtain Trump’s taxes from the IRS.

“If you think this is important, then you should require its release,” Joe Thorndike, executive director of the Tax History Project, who will testify at the hearing, told CNN. “If you are not prepared to require its release then you don’t really think that it’s very important.”

Updated

The father of a murdered Parkland student, who clashed with Florida representative Matt Gaetz at a congressional hearing, said Thursday the congressman’s rhetoric was “offensive”.

Manuel Oliver shouted out in protest after Gaetz, a Republican, brought up illegal immigration at a hearing on gun violence and said that building a border wall would help prevent murders committed by unauthorized immigrants. Gatez asked for him and another Parkland dad to be removed from the hearing room, but they ended up getting a warning, according to NPR.

“Don’t bring the wall as a solution for everything. It’s pretty offensive,” Oliver said Thursday on CNN’s New Day. “If this is how this is going to work, I’ve got to stop this guy. I’ve got to let the whole nation know that he is wrong.”

Updated

Nancy Pelosi: 'There will not be another shutdown'

House speaker Nancy Pelosi vowed that there will not be another government shutdown over Donald Trump’s demands for a border wall.

“There will not be another shutdown,” she told Politico. “No, it’s not going to happen.”

Pelosi predicted that after a widely unpopular partial government shutdown that lasted 35 days, Republican leaders would not be willing to go along with a shutdown again.

“I have a club that I started, it’s called the ‘Too-Hot-to-Handle Club’. And this is a too-hot-to-handle issue,” she said.

A stopgap funding bill that was passed to end the shutdown is set to expire on 15 February.

In the interview with Politico, Pelosi also took a shot at Trump’s State of the Union speech.

“Don’t waste your time on this. This is theatrics, this is not government,” she said. “We just take this in stride.”

As political scandals roil Virginia, Donald Trump charged Thursday that Democrats “are killing the Great State of Virginia”.

The state’s politics have been in turmoil since a racist photo surfaced on Governor Ralph Northam’s medical school yearbook page. Within days the lieutenant governor was publicly accused of sexual assault, and the attorney general admitted he had also worn blackface while in college.

“Democrats at the top are killing the Great State of Virginia. If the three failing pols were Republicans, far stronger action would be taken,” Trump said in a tweet. “Virginia will come back HOME Republican) in 2020!”

Donald Trump is attacking the congressional investigations planned by the new Democratic House majority, calling them “unlimited presidential harassment”.

Trump in a series of tweets Thursday morning called the expected congressional investigations a continuation of the “witch-hunt” he has accused special counsel Robert Mueller of pursuing with the ongoing investigations into Russian election interference, which has resulted in a host of indictments of Trump’s associates.

“So now Congressman Adam Schiff announces, after having found zero Russian Collusion, that he is going to be looking at every aspect of my life, both financial and personal, even though there is no reason to be doing so,” he said, referring to the new chair of the House intelligence committee.

“Never happened before! Unlimited Presidential Harassment ... The Dems and their committees are going ‘nuts.’ The Republicans never did this to President Obama, there would be no time left to run government. I hear other committee heads will do the same thing. Even stealing people who work at White House! A continuation of Witch Hunt!”

Updated

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to release Green New Deal resolution

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will on Thursday release her Green New Deal resolution, beginning to put policy specifics behind what became a campaign rallying cry.

The six-page proposal calls for a carbon neutral economy within 10 years, and says the federal government should “achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions” by getting all power from “clean, renewable and zero-emission energy sources”.

Sixty members of the House and nine senators are co-sponsoring the resolution. It doesn’t stay strictly focused on climate policy, but endorses a host of progressive priorities including universal healthcare, a jobs guarantee and free higher education.

Updated

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