Military troops that have been assisting in border protection at the request of President Trump will begin returning home as early as this week, Politico reports, with all active-duty troops expected to be back by Christmas.
The big picture: Trump ordered troops to be sent to the border as a caravan of Central American migrants began its journey through Mexico toward the U.S. and shortly before the midterm elections. The U.S. Northern Command said through a spokesperson that they are continuing to "assess the situation" and plan to continue supporting Customs and Border Protection until at least Dec. 15 as originally scheduled.
Eight Democratic members of Congress, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Reps. Raúl Grijalva and Nydia Velázquez, have written a letter to President Trump saying that cutting off relief funds to Puerto Rico is "unacceptable" and would have a "catastrophic effect on the Island’s already fragile recovery."
Why it matters: Trump has told senior officials that he would like to retract some of the federal funds Congress has already set aside for Puerto Rico's disaster recovery, Axios' Jonathan Swan reported earlier this month. This is mainly due to Trump's belief that the funds are being used to pay back debt (there is no evidence of this). The members noted in their letter that they would work with Trump to "ensure this never occurs."
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi proposed altering a 181-year ban on members of Congress wearing headwear on the floor of the House of Representatives last week to "ensure religious expression" by exempting religious headwear, reports ABC News.
Sixteen current and incoming House Democrats have signed and released a letter stating that they are "committed to voting for new leadership in both our Caucus meeting and on the House floor."
Why it matters: As the Washington Post's Aaron Blake points out,Democrats currently have 232 seats, with 5 races still to be called. Meanwhile, 2 of the 16 signatures opposing Rep. Nancy Pelosi as House speaker belong to Democrats in races that haven't been called. But regardless, 14 guaranteed no-votes is enough to put Pelosi in jeopardy, as that would leave her with a maximum of 218 votes. She needs all 218 to win a simple majority in the House.
Democrat Gina Ortiz Jones has conceded to Republican incumbent Rep. Will Hurd in the hotly contested race for Texas' 23rd congressional district, reports the Dallas Morning News.
Why it matters: The district is majority Hispanic and stretches for hundreds of miles along the U.S.-Mexico border, making it a microcosm of Texas' shifting demographics. Democrats made it a primary target in the midterms — and it was one of Axios' 8 for 2018 — but Jones fell about 1,000 votes short. In her concession statement, she said, "Our campaign was based on the belief that everyone is equal — equally deserving to be heard at the ballot box and served in our communities. We worked hard to make this a reality, understanding this is the only path toward the more perfect union that our founders envisioned."
In a pair of Monday morning tweets, President Trump doubled down on remarks he made Sunday about how past administrations and military leaders should have captured Osama bin Laden sooner than they did.
The big picture: The comments have drawn criticism from former intelligence officials and veterans who view Trump's comments as unbecoming of the commander in chief. In a Washington Post op-ed published before Trump's tweets Monday morning, former NATO supreme allied commander Wesley Clark said that despite to Trump's personal belief that he honors and respects the military, his behavior in office suggests otherwise.
President Trump doubled down on his criticism of past administrations, military leadership and the nation of Pakistan for not capturing or killing Osama bin Laden sooner in a series of Monday morning tweets.
"Of course we should have captured Osama Bin Laden long before we did. I pointed him out in my book just BEFORE the attack on the World Trade Center. President Clinton famously missed his shot. We paid Pakistan Billions of Dollars & they never told us he was living there. Fools! We no longer pay Pakistan the $Billions because they would take our money and do nothing for us, Bin Laden being a prime example, Afghanistan being another. They were just one of many countries that take from the United States without giving anything in return. That’s ENDING!"
The big picture: Trump made waves yesterday in an interview with "Fox News Sunday" after he blasted retired Navy Adm. William McRaven, who organized the bin Laden raid, when asked about McRaven's criticisms of his rhetoric toward the media. And cutting foreign aid to Pakistan due to its continued support of the Taliban has been a strategic goal for the Trump administration, having slashed a total of $800 million already this year.
Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) filed a lawsuit in federal court in an effort to prevent acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker from serving in his post, arguing that his appointment was unconstitutional, reports The Daily Beast.
The big picture: The Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) wrote that it was within President Trump's authority to appoint Whitaker as Jeff Sessions' replacement through the Vacancies Reform Act and Attorney General Succession Act. But many legal experts agree that the appointment is open to legal challenges under the Constitution because the Senate did not confirm Whitaker in his previous post.
Democratic donors and political operatives in Iowa and around the country are holding off on throwing their resources behind a candidate for the 2020 presidential primary until they find out whether Rep. Beto O'Rourke plans to run, reports Politico.
The big picture: The hype surrounding the charismatic Texas congressman — who raised a record-breaking $38 million in the third quarter of 2018 before narrowly losing to Ted Cruz in the Texas Senate race — has reportedly been enough to spook donors from going all in on another candidate. O'Rourke has not yet declared whether he intends to run in 2020, but is expected to join a packed field of Democratic candidates if he decides to do so.
Was Trump trolling when he offered on Saturday to personally whip votes to help Nancy Pelosi become speaker of the House?
Between the lines: I asked that question to about a dozen current and former White House officials and sources close to the president. None of them knew, including a source who spoke to the president on Saturday.
Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters is proposing a new direction for the House Financial Services Committee, which she will almost certainly lead in the next Congress, Axios has learned.
Between the lines: The most notable proposed change: is lumping oversight of “International Financial Institutions" — which could mean anything from the World Bank to foreign banks — with the existing Terrorism and Illicit Finance subcommittee, while scrapping the Monetary Policy and Trade subcommittee.
President Trump has never wanted to make a big deal out of the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, which the CIA reportedly has concluded was ordered by the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Behind the scenes: Trump has privately called the assassination "really bad," but immediately adds that other countries America deals with, including China, do "a lot of bad things," according to sources with direct knowledge. Trump has also privately told associates he thinks it's ridiculous that people are making so much of the Saudi murder of one man, given the brutal practices of countries like China.
Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson conceded the highly contested Florida Senate race to Florida Republican Gov. Rick Scott, according to a statement from Scott. After rounds of recounts in the state, Scott maintained a lead of about 10,000 votes.
Why it matters: Nelson was one of 10 Senate Democrats running for re-election in a state Donald Trump won in 2016. His defeat at the hands of Scott, a two-term governor, will help Republicans consolidate their Senate majority. The bitter and expensive race comes to an end after two rounds of mandatory recounts and a series of dueling lawsuits and unfounded accusations of voter fraud from the Scott camp.
Members of the most diverse incoming congressional class in American history joined Sunday's cable news talk shows to discuss a range of topics, including how their unique perspectives will play a role in trying to bridge a divided nation.
The big picture: On ABC's "This Week," where host Martha Raddatz interviewed five of the record number of women who will serve in the new Congress, Rep.-elect Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.) said the success of diverse candidates in the midterms is "an important step for Congress to better represent the face of the nation. And as you can see from our faces, I think we're a better representation of what's been missing in Congress."
Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) endorsed a national campaign on Saturday that seeks to find progressive Democratic candidates to run against incumbent Democrats deemed too conservative or out of touch with their home districts.
Why it matters: It's part of a concerted effort from the Democrats' progressive wing to shift the party further to the left by replicating Ocasio-Cortez’s playbook after she shockingly defeated Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.), who was viewed as a possible successor to Nancy Pelosi as House Democratic leader.
Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) told CNN's "State of the Union" that he's "very concerned" about Republicans' chances in the 2020 presidential election — both in Arizona and in suburbs around the country. Discussing his home state, which just flipped his Senate seat to Democrat Kyrsten Sinema, Flake said, "You cannot run as someone who is tied at the hip with the president and win statewide."
In an interview with Chris Wallace for "Fox News Sunday," President Trump talked about some of the biggest topics of the day — from the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi to his fiery press rhetoric to the palace intrigue engulfing his own White House.
Driving the news: Trump was hesitant to discuss the prospects of two of his most at-risk advisers, Chief of Staff John Kelly and DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, damning both with faint praise while remaining noncommittal about their future in his Cabinet. He said, "Let’s see what happens. I have not — look, I have three or four or five positions that I’m thinking about. Of that, maybe it’s going to end up being two. Maybe, but I want to — I need flexibility."
The battle over whether Rep. Nancy Pelosi, who already became the first woman to serve as speaker of the House in 2007, will retake the gavel for Democrats now that they're in the majority has "exploded into a national political campaign," reports the Washington Post.
Why it matters: The speaker of the House will not only be responsible for advancing the Democrats' legislative agenda, but will also "emerge as the country’s most high-profile counterpoint to President Trump — who will set the strategy for investigating him, who will lead the opposition to his agenda, and who will be the face of the Democratic Party ahead of the 2020 campaign," per the Post. Riding a wave of at least 40 flipped House seats, new Democratic members have an expectation for change, one that could come via a speaker challenge from African-American lawmaker Rep. Marcia L. Fudge (D-Ohio).
The House race for California's 39th district has been called for Democrat Gil Cisneros over Young Kim, who was vying to become the first Korean-American woman in Congress and Republicans' last hope to keep a seat in Orange County. It is the 39th House seat that Democrats flipped this year.
The big picture: Democrats dominated congressional races in the state this year, flipping six seats with four of them in traditionally red Orange County. The seat had been held by Republican Ed Royce for 13 terms.
