President Trump mocked Democrats' Green New Deal resolution in a Saturday tweet, in accurately describing its core goals while sarcastically saying that it is "very important" for them to "press forward" with the idea.
"I think it is very important for the Democrats to press forward with their Green New Deal. It would be great for the so-called 'Carbon Footprint' to permanently eliminate all Planes, Cars, Cows, Oil, Gas & the Military - even if no other country would do the same. Brilliant!"
The big picture: Trump has long mocked the idea of climate change, despite overwhelming scientific evidence showing temperatures around the globe are increasing due to human activity. And both Trump and top officials in his administration believe they can unify Republicans as some vocal wings of the Democratic Party embrace socialist ideas like the Green New Deal, as Axios reported earlier this week.
Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker put on a performance today that's likely to leave plenty of top Trump officials even less excited about the prospect of their day on Capitol Hill.
In what the NYT called a "remarkable breach of decorum," Whitaker drew stunned laughs in the room with this response to a question from House Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler, a Democrat: “Mr. Chairman, I see that your five minutes is up.” Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee later retorted: “Mr. Attorney General, we are not joking here ... And your humor is not acceptable.”
Given the recent the Al-Shabab terror attack in Kenya, the ongoing unrest in Zimbabwe, and upcoming elections in Africa’s two largest economies, investors are taking pause when looking at the region. But Angola is standing out as a bright spot, where, after years of economic downturn, a 2019 recovery has come into view.
Until yesterday, Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) hadn't made climate change central to their political careers.
But now they comprise roughly half of the initial Senate cosponsors of what's by far the most sweeping and aggressive global warming template ever proposed on Capitol Hill.
Why it matters: It's a testament to the meteoric rise of the Green New Deal concept. But there's also raw and delicate politics at play — Rep. Alexandrio Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and her allies are a force in Democratic politics and they're already affecting the 2020 race.
Democrats just gave President Trump the socialism fight he's been spoiling for with the Green New Deal — which calls for a mammoth expansion of federal investments and market interventions — and the political and planetary stakes couldn't be higher.
Driving the news: Six top-tier Democratic presidential 2020 candidates — Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar and Bernie Sanders — are already co-sponsoring the non-binding resolution.
A small bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced legislation Thursday that would support the buildout of technology capturing carbon dioxide emissions.
Why it matters: Although it’s not nearly as high-profile or sweeping as the Green New Deal resolution, also unveiled Thursday, the bill takes a more direct, concrete aim at the root of climate change: emissions themselves.
On the coast of South America, just north of Brazil, lies the impoverished former British colony of Guyana, distantly remembered for a bizarre mass suicide four decades ago that begot the term "drinking the Kool-Aid."
Why it matters: The discovery of a massive trove of oil off its shores, including two finds just this week, puts Guyana on the cusp of becoming one of the world's wealthiest nations, in the league of petro-states like Qatar.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler said late Thursday that acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker will testify before the panel on Friday. This appears to end a standoff with Democrats, after Whitaker threatened not to appear unless he receives assurances that he will not be served with a subpoena for invoking executive privilege.
"The chairman has made the commitment that we requested, and agreed that, if Mr. Whitaker voluntarily appears at tomorrow's hearing, the Committee will not issue a subpoena on or before February 8. In light of that commitment, Acting Attorney General Whitaker looks forward to voluntarily appearing at tomorrow's hearing and discussing the great work of the Department of Justice."
— DOJ spokesperson Kerri Kupec said in a statement.
The big picture: The committee voted along party lines Thursday to preemptively subpoena Whitaker if he refuses to answer questions. The Justice Department's head of legislative affairs Stephen Boyd said that unless the committee promised by 6 p.m. on Thursday not to subpoena Whitaker, he would not attend the hearing, according to The Daily Beast.
