What she's saying: Any leader should be "willing to meet with others, whether they be friends or adversaries ... if we are serious about the pursuit of peace and securing our country.”
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said on “Meet the Press" that the idea that Trump Tower Moscow negotiations could have continued into November of 2016 was “big news,” asking why the details were just emerging now, two years after the fact.
The state of play: Warner, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the committee is separately investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) told CNN's Jake Tapper on Sunday that her previous hardline immigration views earlier in her political career "certainly weren't empathetic and were not kind," as the comments come under increased scrutiny since she announced that she’s entering the 2020 presidential race.
"What President Trump is doing is destroying the moral fabric of what this country stands for. … I am nothing like him and never will be."
— Gillibrand to CNN
Background: As a member of the U.S. House representing an upstate New York district before joining the Senate in 2008, Gillibrand opposed "amnesty for illegal immigrants," voted to increase funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and supported calls for English to be the country’s official language.
With his Dreamers deal being panned as a "non-starter" by Dems and "amnesty" by Ann Coulter, some Hill allies of President Trump are urging him to take his compromise message to the country.
What they're saying: “He needs to go on offense and take the message outside the Beltway,” a Senate aide told Axios. “He loves rallies. He could do three a day! All he has to do is show up and say: 'Make me an offer to reopen the government.'"
Democrats — after trying to resist bashing President Trump during the midterms and instead focus on their health-care message — are savoring the chance to go all-in now that he's going to be on the ballot.
Driving the news: Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's announcement video included a brief section about Trump. And during her first press conference as a presidential candidate, she mentioned him early and often: “Donald Trump has chosen to tear the country apart. I believe he’s literally ripping apart the fabric of our country.”
In a speech Saturday afternoon, President Trump confirmed that in order to end the government shutdown, he is proposing a 3-year extension of protections for DACA recipients and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders in exchange for $5.7 billion in border funding, as first reported by Axios' Jonathan Swan.
The big picture: As indicated by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi 30 minutes before Trump's address, this proposal is likely dead on arrival. Pelosi said in a statement: "[Trump's] his proposal is a compilation of several previously rejected initiatives, each of which is unacceptable and in total, do not represent a good faith effort to restore certainty to people's lives."
Four women from the No More Deaths advocacy group were convicted on misdemeanor charges Friday for entering a national wildlife refuge without permits to provide life-saving aid to migrants crossing the Arizona border with Mexico, AP reports.
The big picture: Judge Bernardo Velasco's decision was the first conviction of humanitarian volunteers in a decade, according AP. The women — Natalie Hoffman, Zaachila Orozco-McCormick, Oona Holcomb and Madeline Huse — were attempting to leave water and food for migrants traveling through the Cabeza Prieta refuge.
Speaking to reporters Saturday morning, President Trump offered praise to special counsel Robert Mueller for putting out a statement that disputed parts of an explosive report from BuzzFeed News.
"Yes, I thought that the BuzzFeed piece and maybe equally as bad, the coverage of the BuzzFeed phony story. It was a total phony story, and I appreciate the special counsel coming out with a statement last night. I think it was very appropriate that they did so, I very much appreciate that."
Why it matters: Trump has unleashed countless Twitter tirades decrying the Mueller investigation as a "witch hunt" over the past year and a half, but Mueller's decision to take the rare step of going on the record to dispute the BuzzFeed story — and Trump's subsequent praise of that decision — may make it more difficult for the president to condemn future moves as politically motivated.
"Advisers to former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz have been exploring the possibility of launching an independent bid for the White House in 2020," the WashPost's Michael Scherer reports.
Why it matters: "Trump’s opponents, including many Democratic strategists, have expressed concerns that a serious three-way race in November would divide the Democratic vote in a way that helps Trump win reelection."
President Trump plans to use remarks from the Diplomatic Reception Room on Saturday afternoon to propose a notable immigration compromise, according to sources familiar with the speech.
Details: The offer is expected to include Trump’s $5.7 billion demand for wall money in exchange for the BRIDGE Act — which would extend protections for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) — and also legislation to extend the legal status of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders, according to a source with direct knowledge.
A new coalition of four parties in Sweden's parliament voted Friday to elect center-left Prime Minister Stefan Löfven to a second term, 18 weeks after an election in which Löfven's Social Democrats finished with their lowest vote share since World War I, Politico Europe reports.
The big picture: The Sept. 9 election left the Swedish government in a state of flux, with no party commanding an absolute majority and the far-right, anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats earning a record 17.7% of parliamentary seats. The establishment center-left and center-right coalitions ruled out working with SD — who have roots in neo-Nazism — forcing a rejiggering of political alliances that at points seemed impossible.
