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 …

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.

One more Russian contact: Here's why it matters  —  The Post reports, “Paul Manafort shared 2016 presidential campaign polling data with Konstantin Kilimnik, an associate the FBI has said has ties to Russian intelligence, according to a court filing.”  We learned about the confab between Donald Trump's …

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.

TSA union: Officers quitting over shutdown, posing threat to passenger safety  —  As the partial government shutdown continues, federal workers might miss this week's paychecks.  The federal agency tasked with guaranteeing U.S. airport security acknowledged an increase in the number of its employees calling off work.

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.

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 …

The G.O.P.'s Plan to Take Down Beto: Unleash the Bernie Bros  —  Republicans are digging into O'Rourke's voting record and Big Oil ties in an attempt to isolate him from progressives.  —  In the run-up to Texas's closely watched Senate election, Republicans' attempts to smear Beto O'Rourke centered …

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.

Elizabeth Warren Knows Something Other Presidential Hopefuls Don't: Exactly Why She's Running For President  —  In Council Bluffs, her mic went dead.  —  “No sound!” someone in the back yelled.  —  “I know!” she yelled back in a laugh, before continuing on with her speech.

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 …

Two women charged with assault on transgender person at Glenwood South bar  —  RALEIGH, N.C. — Two women have been charged with assaulting a 29-year-old transgender person in a bathroom at a popular Glenwood South bar last month.  —  According to investigators, the victim was inside …

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.

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

AP FACT CHECK: Trump and the disputed border crisis  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — In his prime-time speech to the nation, President Donald Trump declared a border crisis that's in sharp dispute, wrongly accused Democrats of refusing to pay for border security and ignored the reality of how drugs come …

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.

North Carolina Looks Like Battleground Once Again For 2020  —  PPP's first North Carolina poll of the 2020 cycle finds the state is likely to once again be a key battleground for President next year.  Voters in the state are closely divided on Donald Trump but split narrowly against him …

Forget the wall.  Trump is the national security crisis  —  Sarah Kendzior is the author of The View From Flyover Country and the co-host of the podcast Gaslit Nation.  —  On December 22, 2018, the second-longest shutdown of the federal government in United States history began.

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.

Trump has never known how to work with Congress  —  Two months after announcing his candidacy for the presidency, Donald Trump arrived at the Iowa State Fair in a “Trump"-emblazoned helicopter.  Over an hour-and-a-half, he pushed through the fairgrounds, surrounded by a clot of admirers and curious Iowans.