Politico identified the 270 Trump team members, law enforcement officials, prosecutors and foreign nationals connected to the various Russia probes through an analysis of public documents. The full interactive list is worthy of your time.
Make that 271: Jonathan Swan broke the news earlier tonight of the new mystery man and Bannon associate who's been talking to Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
Rep. Devin Nunes, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, has declined to show the FBI a memo he co-wrote which accuses the intelligence community of abusing FISA, the Daily Beast reports. The memo alleges that the FBI used the Steele dossier on Trump-Russia ties as a pretext to obtain FISA wiretaps against American citizens.
The backdrop: The classified memo has been thrust into the spotlight with House Republicans and right-wing media demanding that the Intel Committee #ReleaseTheMemo and make the allegations public.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team has been talking with George Nader, a little-known Bannon associate who boasts of his well-placed connections in the Middle East, Axios has learned.
Nader has spoken with Mueller's team at least twice, according to a source briefed on the investigation. A second source briefed on the investigation confirmed that Mueller's team has brought Nader in for questioning in the past week. The Special Counsel's office declined to comment.
President Donald Trump has put Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross out to pasture.
Wilbur has lost his step. Actually, he’s probably lost a lot of steps.
— President Trump, shaking his head in resignation, to one of our sources
One problem: Ross’s efforts to wheel and deal with the Chinese have left the president unimpressed. Another problem: He keeps falling asleep in meetings.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke went “rogue,” per one source. And President Trump isn’t happy about it.
Two weeks ago, Zinke made an announcement that surprised the White House (and over Twitter, no less, after telling reporters at the Tallahassee airport): the waters around Florida would be exempt from his agency’s offshore oil and gas leasing program. Zinke’s announcement came shortly after he met with the state’s Republican governor, Rick Scott.
Moderate Senate Republicans and Democrats convened in Susan Collins' office this afternoon in a bipartisan attempt to resolve the government shutdown. On entering, Sen. Lindsey Graham told reporters that he expected a breakthrough tonight — with a three-week continuing resolution and an "understanding" to move forward soon on DACA — and blasted White House senior adviser Stephen Miller by name for contributing to the impasse on immigration:
“As long as Stephen Miller is in charge of negotiating immigration, we're going nowhere. He’s been an outlier for years.”
Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq War veteran who lost both of her legs in combat, blasted President Trump — whom she branded as a draft-dodging "Cadet Bone Spurs" — in a speech on the Senate floor yesterday for blaming Democrats for holding military pay hostage in the government shutdown.
If you cared about our military, you'd stop baiting Kim Jong-un into a war that could put 85,000 American troops and millions of innocent civilians in danger.
Sen. Tom Cotton told NBC News' Chuck Todd that he "was not offended" by "some cursing behind closed doors" at the Oval Office meeting during which President Trump reportedly referred to Haiti and African nations as "shithole" (or, by some accounts, "shithouse") countries.
A senior GOP House aide sent this email to me Saturday with the subject line, “Our future," which blasts the United States for shirking its global duties for political quibbles: "The largest country in the world, with global responsibilities, shutting down the government over a squabble ... 100% for short-term political gain."
The big picture: "The post-World War II world we have been living in for 7 decades was largely created — and certainly sustained and defended — by American power. ... Since 2001, we've experienced almost nothing but reverses overseas, much of it truly major and permanent. And our relative power — the power to compel and protect — is shrinking as other countries rise."
Season 1 of the Donald Trump presidency had a cliffhanger ending: The government shuts down on Day 365! Now the "Art of the Deal" author begins Season 2 with taunting cable clocks clicking off the seconds since the shutdown.
Congressional Republicans have seen a bounce in generic polling against Democrats after passing tax cuts last month. A new CNN poll tightened the margin to 5 points — with Democrats at 49% and Republicans at 44%. The same poll showed Democrats leading by 18 points last month.
Why it matters: The GOP is banking its 2018 hopes on the tax law, and while it's far from universally popular it is making a difference. A 5-point deficit is still bad, though at least the sky isn't falling. One thing that should be worrying: that CNN poll has those excited about turning out for the midterms favoring Democrats by 15 points.
President Trump tweeted this morning that the Senate should invoke the "Nuclear Option" — ending the filibuster to require a simple majority to pass legislation — if the stalemate over the ongoing government shutdown continues. And it seems to be a concerted White House effort as Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah said the same thing on Fox News this morning.
Mitch McConnell has called for a vote to end the government shutdown at 1 a.m. on Monday, per the Washington Post. His plan would keep the government open through February 8, and is not likely to include concessions Democrats are seeking on immigration.
Little tangible progress was made on Saturday, as both sides exchanged blame and the White House insisted the shutdown would be short and painless, compared to the 2013 shutdown under Barack Obama.
