Trump Appeals to Nation for Wall: ‘This Is a Choice Between Right and Wrong’  —  WASHINGTON — President Trump sought to go over the heads of Congress to enlist public support for his long-promised border wall on Tuesday night, raising the stakes of an ideological and political conflict …

Rosenstein expected to depart DOJ in coming weeks once new attorney general confirmed  —  Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is expected to leave his role in the coming weeks, multiple sources familiar with his plans told ABC News.  —  Rosenstein has communicated to President Donald Trump …

Trump tried to play a normal president on television.  The result was very strange.  —  Every day, the comedian Megan Amram tweets “Today was the day Donald Trump finally became president.”  It's a joke both on the people who hoped that Trump might grow into his office, and on the president himself …

Trump is still considering an emergency declaration to get the funds to build a border wall  —  A source close to President Trump tells Jonathan Swan that he thinks a declaration of a national emergency at the border — which Trump stopped short of last night — remains the most likely ultimate option …

Americans Increasingly See The Government Shutdown As Serious  —  A growing minority also say that they are, or expect to be, affected.  —  More than four in 10 Americans now consider the partial government shutdown a very serious problem, a new HuffPost/YouGov poll finds.

Proud Boy Member Accused of Murdering His Brother With a Sword  —  Prosecutors say Buckey Wolfe was convinced his brother was a lizard.  —  A self-proclaimed member of the far-right Proud Boys group who also believes in the QAnon conspiracy theory allegedly murdered his own brother with a sword.

Manafort Accused of Sharing Trump Campaign Data With Russian Associate  —  WASHINGTON — As a top official in President Trump's campaign, Paul Manafort shared political polling data with a business associate tied to Russian intelligence, according to a court filing unsealed on Tuesday.

Wrinkled, white, and wrong — this is the face of the Democratic party  —  Ignore the colorful and fresh-faced Democrats filling up your social media feed.  The new face of their party is the same as the old one.  It is a white, wrinkled face that no amount of plastic surgery can reconfigure.

Trump Campaign Consultants Cambridge Analytica Found Guilty of Breaking Data Laws  —  The British analytics company employed by the Trump campaign has been fined for refusing to disclose to an American voter how much data they held on him and how they used it.  —  Nico Hines

Presidential address: The one word Trump didn't say  —  Josh Campbell is a CNN analyst covering national security issues.  He previously served as a Supervisory Special Agent with the FBI, special assistant to the bureau's director, and is currently writing a book on recent attempts by elected officials to undermine the rule of law.

Cracks emerging among Senate Republicans as Murkowski calls for end to shutdown  —  (CNN)Patience is beginning to wear thin among Senate Republicans for a prolonged government shutdown, with a growing number at risk of revolting if the fight over funding President Donald Trump's border wall drags out indefinitely.

Turning Point Dissidents Turn on ‘Snowflake’ Founder and Fox News Darling Charlie Kirk  —  Memes included an altered photo of founder Charlie Kirk's face. … Campus conservative group Turning Point USA and its founder, Fox News darling Charlie Kirk, had a problem.

“There Is No Endgame”: White House Aides Fear Trump Has Turned the Border Wall into His Alamo  —  “The president put himself in a box” as Trump tries to fight his way out, his new chief of staff already eyes the exits, and Giuliani worries about Mueller's possibly “horrific” report.

The American ‘Zionist’ assault on Israel  —  Less hubris and more interest in why Israelis think what they do would go a long way to helping this relationship survive  —  “American Jews and Israeli Jews Are Headed for a Messy Breakup,” a column by Jonathan Weisman announced in the New York Times earlier this week.

Tensions rise between 2 of Hawaii's Congressional leaders over ‘religious bigotry’ comments  —  HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard appears to have “called out” Hawaii Senator Mazie Hirono over her questioning of a judicial nominee, accusing her and others of religious bigotry.

Steven Pinker, Richard Dawkins, Jordan Peterson, Others Urge Portland State Not to Punish Peter Boghossian for ‘Grievance Studies’ Hoax  —  Several well-known academics wrote letters in support of Portland State University (PSU) philosophy professor Peter Boghossian, a co-author of the hoax …

The partisan warrior leading the White House's shutdown response  —  The White House nerve center spearheading the erratic response to the government shutdown is run by an interim director and longtime conservative firebrand whose confirmation last year was nearly derailed because of his inflammatory comments about Muslims.

What's Worse Than Brexit?  This.  —  It's official: the delayed parliamentary vote on Prime Minister Theresa May's initial Brexit deal with the European Union is now scheduled for Jan. 15.  May has had a brutal couple of months, culminating in a no-confidence vote spurred from within …