Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Tuesday walked back an offer to discuss funding for the construction of President Trump's border wall.
The backdrop: This comes as Schumer is facing backlash from liberals and activists after some Senate Democrats voted on Monday to reopen the government instead of pushing harder for an immigration deal for DACA recipients as part of the agreement. Schumer’s withdrawal of the offer was first reported by Politico.
Sen. Tammy Duckworth will be the first sitting senator to give birth in U.S. history, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
"I am proud to have her as my Illinois colleague and prouder still that she will make history by being the first U.S. Senator to have a baby while in office. I couldn't be happier for her."
— Sen. Dick Durbin
There have been 10 sitting members of Congress to give birth. Three of them went on to be elected to the Senate.
Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Tuesday that the bipartisan immigration deal struck by Sens. Flake, Graham and Durbin is "totally unacceptable" to President Trump.
Two top congressional Democrats have asked Facebook and Twitter to investigate attempts by Russia-backed accounts to undermine Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation with a hashtag campaign calling for the public release of a partisan memo involved in the probe.
Why it matters:The letter from Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Rep. Adam Schiff is an attempt to draw attention to the possibility that Russian accounts boosted the "#ReleaseTheMemo" campaign. If that's true, the Democrats wrote, "we are witnessing an ongoing attack by the Russian government through Kremlin-linked social media actors directly acting to intervene and influence our democratic process."
President Trump said Tuesday that FBI Director Christopher Wray did not threaten to resign — "he didn't even a little bit" — following our report last night that Wray threatened to resign if Attorney General Jeff Sessions kept pressuring him to move Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, and others, out of their jobs.
Between the lines: Axios stands by its reporting. Trump was not involved in any of the conversations with Wray, and we never reported that he was.
A DACA solution along with a long-term budget by February 8 looks next to impossible, Senate aides on both side of the aisle as well as several industry sources closely involved tell Axios. They expect to be in the same spot they were in last weekend.
All about that base: Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle want to protect DREAMers — even President Trump wants a DACA solution. The problem is, Republicans want to use DACA as a bargaining chip to get Trump's wall, pass tougher immigration enforcement policies and cut back on chain migration. They can't risk a clean DACA deal with their base. Meanwhile, Democrats have no interest in chain migration changes as part of a DACA deal, according to a Republican Senate source. There's not been much compromise and it doesn't look like much will change between now and February 8th.
Trump tweeted Tuesday morning that he thinks “one of the biggest stories in a long time” is that “the FBI now says it is missing five months worth of lovers Strzok-Page texts, perhaps 50,000, and all in prime time. Wow!”
Why Trump’s tweet isn’t surprising: Trump and Republican lawmakers have pointed to anti-Trump texts between FBI agent Peter Strzok and FBI lawyer Lisa Page as signs of “manifest bias” against Trump in the FBI. Trump has accused Strzok, with no evidence, of treason. Trump is just continuing that line of defense now.
A little bird passes along nuggets from "Media Madness," by Fox News host Howard Kurtz, out Jan. 29:
During the campaign, Jared Kushner called CNN Worldwide President Jeff Zucker after the network's fact-checkers had declared part of a Trump speech false:
Armed Swiss police officers stand guard on the roof of a hotel near the Congress Center in Davos, where Trump will speak Friday. Photo: Markus Schreiber / AP
Sources tell us that during a recent phone call, French President Emmanuel Macron played to President Trump's ego and slyly encouraged him to take his "America first" bravado to Davos, the ultimate elitist stage.
Macron reminded Trump how many world leaders would be in the Swiss Alps this week for the annual World Economic Forum — and made it sound fun, the source said.
Congress has, after more than 100 days, voted to fund the Children's Health Insurance for six years. But we're likely to keep hearing about the program — either as part of campaign ads heading into this year's midterms, or a push for an even longer extension.
The bottom line: It doesn't matter whose fault it was: The funding delay came at a price. "At a minimum families have experienced anxiety but it is also possible that families may have thought the program was closed and not enrolled their kids. And states have wasted a lot of time and energy developing contingency plans," said Joan Alker of Georgetown's Center for Children and Families.