Top Items:
New York Times:
In a West Wing in Transition, Trump Tries to Stand Firm on the Shutdown — WASHINGTON — President Trump has insisted that he is not going to compromise with Democrats to end the government shutdown, and that he is comfortable in his unbendable position. But privately, it's sometimes a different story.
Discussion:
Raw Story, Joe.My.God. and The Week
Michael Burke / The Hill:
Giuliani: ‘I never said there was no collusion’ between the Trump campaign and Russia — President Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, said Wednesday that he “never said there was no collusion” between the Trump campaign and Russia. — “I never said there was no collusion between the campaign.
Discussion:
Axios, The Week, Daily Kos, The Daily Beast and Breitbart
RELATED:
Caroline Kelly / CNN:
Rudy Giuliani says Trump didn't collude with Russia but can't say if campaign aides did — (CNN)Rudy Giuliani said Wednesday that he never denied President Donald Trump's campaign colluded with the Russian government during the 2016 campaign, only that the President himself was not involved in collusion.
Discussion:
Lawyers, Guns & Money
Garrett M. Graff / Wired:
Trump Must Be a Russian Agent; the Alternative Is Too Awful — IT WOULD BE rather embarrassing for Donald Trump at this point if Robert Mueller were to declare that the president isn't an agent of Russian intelligence. — THE PATTERN OF his pro-Putin, pro-Russia, anti-FBI …
Discussion:
American Greatness, Law & Crime, Bloomberg and The Nation
Washington Post:
‘She wields the knife’: Pelosi moves to belittle and undercut Trump in shutdown fight — House Democrats on Wednesday were making plans to undermine President Trump at his Jan. 29 “State of the Union” address. Just past 8:30 a.m., the leadership's communications arm sent an email …
RELATED:
Jeff Greenfield / Politico:
Nancy Pelosi Might Have Just Blown Up the State of the Union. And That's OK. — In 1974, the Watergate investigation was blowing up around the White House, and Congress looked well on its way to impeaching President Richard Nixon. But on January 30 it all came to a standstill as Nixon walked …
Discussion:
Vox, Hullabaloo, Breitbart, National Review and ThinkProgress
David Edwards / Raw Story:
Stephen Miller was writing SOTU to blame Democrats for shutdown — until Nancy Pelosi pulled the rug out: report — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) may have thrown a wrench into President Donald Trump's primetime plan to blame Democrats for the shutdown. — Citing security concerns on Wednesday …
Discussion:
No More Mister Nice Blog and Politico
Madeline Osburn / The Federalist:
Pelosi Just Cancelled The State Of The Union Over The Border Wall She Refuses To Build
Discussion:
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, American Greatness, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and RT
Eliza Collins / USA Today:
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a social media star, to school House Democrats on Twitter use — WASHINGTON - Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez dances outside her office, solicits instant-pot recipes and gets into fights on Twitter. Soon you may see other Democrats taking a page from her social media playbook.
Discussion:
The Verge, Splinter, Billboard, TheBlaze and Talking Points Memo
RELATED:
Eliza Relman / Business Insider:
‘#WheresMitch?’: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other freshman Democrats are moving blame for the shutdown from Trump to Mitch McConnell — Freshman House Democrats marched through the halls of Congress on Wednesday to deliver a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, demanding that he hold a vote to reopen the government.
Discussion:
Hot Air, twitchy.com and Shareblue Media
Washington Post:
Top HUD official's departure follows disagreements over housing policy and Puerto Rico disaster funds — A top Department of Housing and Urban Development official is leaving the agency Thursday following disagreements with other members of the Trump administration over housing policy …
Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
BREAKING: Cumming man threatened to attack White House, authorities say — Federal authorities on Wednesday announced a terrorist case against a metro Atlanta resident accused of plotting to destroy the White House and other Washington D.C. government buildings.
Discussion:
Associated Press, Instapundit, Jihad Watch, WXIA-TV, Washington Free Beacon, TheBlaze, Mediaite, Daily Wire and Breitbart
RELATED:
Erin Banco / The Daily Beast:
Rick Gates Tells Mueller About Trump Team's Dealings With Israeli Intelligence Firm — Psy Group delivered plans for ‘social media manipulation’ in 2016 and the special counsel is digging in as part of his probe into Mideast influence. — Rick Gates, the former campaign aide to Donald Trump …
Discussion:
Boing Boing, Joe.My.God. and Raw Story
Beto O'Rourke:
A lot of big trucks rolling down Pancake Blvd and there aren't any sidewalks. Gloomy early morning sky in Liberal Kansas. Snow melt on the side of the road where I'm running. I find a vacant lot to cut through to another street, also busy and without sidewalks.
Discussion:
CNN, The Daily Caller, Splinter, National Review and twitchy.com
RELATED:
David Siders / Politico:
Beto skips town while his brain trust sketches 2020 plans
Discussion:
Hot Air, Washington Free Beacon, Mediaite and Washington Post
John Solomon / The Hill:
FISA shocker: DOJ official warned Steele dossier was connected to Clinton, might be biased — When the annals of mistakes and abuses in the FBI's Russia investigation are finally written, Bruce Ohr almost certainly will be the No. 1 witness, according to my sources.
Discussion:
The Gateway Pundit
RELATED:
Sara Carter / Sara A. Carter:
Stunning: Ohr Testimony Reveals Top DOJ Officials Briefed About Steele Before FISA
Discussion:
The Gateway Pundit
Will Sommer / The Daily Beast:
GOP Congressmen Meet With Holocaust-Denying Troll Chuck Johnson — The two Republican lawmakers say they didn't know about the alt-right troll's past. — Notorious alt-right figure and Holocaust denier Chuck Johnson met with two Republican lawmakers in Congress on Wednesday.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo
FiveThirtyEight:
Most Personality Quizzes Are Junk Science. Take One That Isn't. — Compare your results to those of your friends and family. — What's your personality, and what can it tell you about your true self? Those questions have launched a thousand online personality quizzes.
New York Times:
Will We Ever See Mueller's Report on Trump? Maybe. — WASHINGTON — The swirl of speculation surrounding the Russia investigation often assumes that the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, will release a report of his findings that will serve as the definitive explanation …
Discussion:
The Guardian, Just Security and Outside the Beltway
RELATED:
Aaron Blake / Washington Post:
The Democrats' capitulation to William Barr
Discussion:
Hullabaloo, LGBTQ Nation and East Bay Times
Kenneth P. Vogel / New York Times:
Democrats Fall Short in Effort to Rebuke Administration on Russia Sanctions — WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans on Wednesday narrowly staved off an effort by Democrats to deal the Trump administration's Russia sanctions policy an embarrassing rebuke. — Eleven Republicans joined Democrats …
RELATED:
Washington Post:
Federal agency ‘improperly’ ignored constitutional concerns before allowing Trump to keep lease to his hotel, internal watchdog says — The General Services Administration “ignored” concerns that President Trump's lease on a government-owned building — the one that houses his Trump International Hotel …
Discussion:
Washington Press, ABC News, Joe.My.God., Politico and Axios
RELATED:
Jessica Taylor / NPR:
Federal Watchdog Finds Government Ignored Emoluments Clause With Trump Hotel
Discussion:
Gizmodo, Hullabaloo, Shareblue Media, What The Fuck … and Washington Post, more at Techmeme »
Ivan Pentchoukov / theepochtimes.com:
EXCLUSIVE: In Closed-Door Testimony, Papadopoulos Identified Alleged Spy in Trump Campaign — Former Trump campaign adviser also told lawmakers FBI asked him to wear a wire to record Maltese professor in London — George Papadopoulos, the former foreign policy adviser …
Discussion:
The Daily Caller
Josh Rogin / Washington Post:
North Korean spy chief's visit to Washington shrouded in mystery — On Thursday night, North Korea's spy chief will arrive in Washington for his planned meetings with President Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, according to South Korean news reports and administration sources.
Discussion:
KAJ-TV and The Diplomat
RELATED:
TASS:
Russian security chief warns Ukraine could lose statehood — “The Kiev authorities are doing everything to split Ukraine, implementing the West's scenario to break Ukraine away from Russia, while ignoring the interests of its own people,” said Nikolai Patrushev — /TASS/.
Isaac Chotiner / New Yorker:
Have Aliens Found Us? A Harvard Astronomer on the Mysterious Interstellar Object 'Oumuamua — On October 19, 2017, astronomers at the University of Hawaii spotted a strange object travelling through our solar system, which they later described as “a red and extremely elongated asteroid.”
Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:
The Shutdown Is Hurting Trump's Approval Rating. But Will It Hurt Him in 2020? — The partial government shutdown is beginning to drag on President Trump's approval rating, which is at its lowest point in months. As of early Wednesday evening, his approval rating was 40.2 percent …
Discussion:
Raw Story, Daily Kos and Washington Post
Philly.com:
John Bogle, who founded Vanguard and revolutionized retirement savings, dies at 89. — John C. Bogle, 89, who revolutionized the way Americans save for the future, championed the interests of the small investor, and railed against corporate greed and the excesses of Wall Street …
Discussion:
The Big Picture
Zoe Tillman / BuzzFeed News:
A Lawsuit Claims Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee Retaliated Against A Staffer Who Planned To Sue The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Over An Alleged Rape — The woman, identified by a pseudonym, claimed in a lawsuit that she was raped by a former employee of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation.
Discussion:
Townhall
Farhad Manjoo / New York Times:
There's Nothing Wrong With Open Borders — Why a brave Democrat should make the case for vastly expanding immigration. — The internet expands the bounds of acceptable discourse, so ideas considered out of bounds not long ago now rocket toward widespread acceptability.
Discussion:
Mediaite
Amy B Wang / Washington Post:
Rep. Ed Case said he's ‘an Asian trapped in a white body.’ His apology didn't help. — Shortly after being sworn into office two weeks ago, Rep. Ed Case (D-Hawaii) told his new staff: “I feel the aloha.” — He may be feeling less of that aloha this week, after some remarks he made drew controversy …
Discussion:
APIAVote, RedState, The Week, Mediaite, The Daily Caller and Washington Times
New York Times:
Goldman's Tactic in Huge Malaysian Fraud Case: Smear an Ex-Partner — They sound like the ingredients of a pulpy thriller: Bigamy. Secret religious conversions. A doctorate from a mail-order diploma mill. Affairs with powerful women. — The sordid list — a mixture of facts …
John Podhoretz / New York Post:
Liberals are reading way too much into Trump news stories — Every now and then, as I read supposedly hot news stories and the social media reaction to them, I feel myself growing a white goatee and having my white hair curl up on the sides of my head as I turn into Mugatu …
Paul Mirengoff / Power Line:
Four Americans killed in Syria; ISIS claims responsibility — Four Americans were killed in Manbij, Syria today — two soldiers, a Defense Department civilian, and a military contractor. The deaths were the result of a suicide bombing for which ISIS claimed responsibility.
Discussion:
Washington Post
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