Venezuela has entered an uncertain new phase, with President Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau joining 7 South American countries in endorsing regime change vs. Nicolás Maduro.
Maduro responded Wednesday bycutting off relations with the U.S. and giving American diplomats 72 hours to leave the country. On Wednesday evening, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a statement saying that the U.S. "does not consider former president Nicolas Maduro to have the legal authority to break diplomatic relations with the United States or to declare our diplomats persona non grata."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sent President Trump a letter Wednesday stating that the House "will not consider a resolution authorizing the President's State of the Union in the House Chamber until the government has opened."
The state of play: Trump said at the White House that he'll come up with another plan: "We'll do something in the alternative. I'll be talking to you about that at a later date." As Axios' Jonathan Swan reported this morning, the administration has a Plan B outside Washington, perhaps in the Southwest as a way of sending a message about immigration.
Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó declared himself the country's interim president during a massive opposition rally in Caracas Wednesday as tens of thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets to protest the government of President Nicolas Maduro.
Driving the news: The move led President Trump to announce that he had officially recognized Guaido as Venezuela's interim leader.
President Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen said that he will postpone his scheduled Feb. 7 testimony before the House Oversight Committee due to "threats against his family from President Trump and Mr. Giuliani," as well as his cooperation in ongoing investigations, his lawyer said Wednesday.
The big picture: House Oversight chair Elijah Cummings and House Intelligence chair Adam Schiff issued a statement Wednesday saying that while they understand Cohen's concerns, "not appearing before Congress was never an option ... We will not let the President's tactics prevent Congress from fulfilling our constitutionally mandated oversight responsibilities." President Trump, on hearing the news that Cohen was postponing his testimony over threats to his family, told reporters that Cohen is being "threatened by the truth."
President Trump announced Wednesday that he will recognize Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, the president of the country's National Assembly, as its interim president in an attempt to loosen President Nicolas Maduro's grip on power.
The big picture: Trump called Venezuela's National Assembly "its only legitimate branch of government duly elected by the Venezuelan people" and bashed Maduro's rule as "illegitimate," a point echoed by national security adviser John Bolton earlier this month. In a speech Wednesday, Maduro responded by saying he will cut off diplomatic relations with the U.S. and that American diplomatic staff have 72 hours to leave Venezuela. He urged his country to defend the government against a coup orchestrated by the "imperialist" U.S.
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) will step down as the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and House Judiciary's crime, terrorism, homeland security and investigations subcommittee amid allegations that she mishandled a sexual assault claim, the New York Times reports.
Details: One of Jackson Lee’s former congressional aides filed a lawsuit earlier this month alleging that the congresswoman fired her after she said she was sexually assaulted by a supervisor at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. The NY Times reports that Jackson Lee, who denies she fired the aide for retribution, was given an ultimatum by the foundation to step down this week or face a vote of removal.
President Trump said in a letter to House leader Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday that he plans to honor Pelosi’s original invitation to deliver the State of the Union address in the House Chamber on Jan. 29.
The state of play: Speaker Pelosi's letter to Trump last week urged him to postpone the speech, for security reasons, until after the government reopens. As Axios' Jonathan Swan reported Wednesday morning, the White House wants to make Pelosi go ahead with the speech or formally rescind the invitation.
The House Oversight Committee announced Wednesday that it plans to begin "an in-depth investigation" of the White House and Trump transition team's procedures for granting security clearances "in response to grave breaches of national security at the highest levels of the Trump Administration."
Details: In a letter to White House counsel Pat Cipollone, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) specifically cited the clearances of former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, who has since pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with the Russian ambassador to the U.S., and senior adviser Jared Kushner, who was granted a full clearance after a yearlong delay following concerns about his foreign contacts.
With the ongoing government shutdown now in its 33rd day, a Politico/Morning Consult poll released Wednesday found that President Trump's disapproval rating reached an all-time high of 57% — against a 40% approval rating.
By the numbers: The poll finds that Trump's key policy driving the shutdown — the construction of a border wall — remains divisive among Americans as 43% support its construction while 49% oppose it. But, perhaps most concerning for Trump's strategy, just 7% of those who oppose a wall would choose to fund it if it were the only way to end the shutdown, compared to 72% who oppose that strategy to ending the stalemate.
Editor's note: This post has been corrected to reflect that the poll question regarding funding a border wall as the only way out of a shutdown was limited to those who oppose the policy.
Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg announced his decision Wednesday to launch an exploratory committee to run for president in 2020.
The big picture: Buttigieg, a Democrat, is an Afghanistan war veteran who just turned 37. He is using his youth as a selling point for millennial voters who care about climate change, gun control and the struggles of student loan debt.
President Trump is plunging ahead with plans for a State of the Union address on Tuesday — despite the letter by Speaker Pelosi urging that his speech be postponed, for security reasons, until after the government reopens.
The big picture: Her letter didn't formally disinvite Trump, and the White House wants to make Pelosi go ahead with the speech or formally rescind the invitation. "Secret Service says: 'We have no problem doing our job,'" a senior administration official told me.
A new immigration idea has been circulating over the past 24 hours at senior levels inside the White House and on Capitol Hill: Give a path to green cards to the 700,000 current DACA recipients, three sources familiar with the conversations tell Axios.
The state of play: Republican senators, including James Lankford of Oklahoma, have advocated for this idea. And Jared Kushner has relayed the idea to his colleagues in the White House as a possible way to break the congressional deadlock.
4 members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus — Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Ro Khanna (Calif.), Ayanna Pressley (Mass.) and Rashida Tlaib (Mich.) — were named Tuesday night to the House Oversight Committee.
Why it matters: The influential Oversight Committee, led by Rep. Elijah Cummings, will serve as a powerful check on the Trump administration, which has accrued a laundry list of potential subpoena targets over the past two years. The four new members — all of which, besides Khanna, are freshmen — have been exceptionally outspoken in their criticism of the administration, with Tlaib in particular making headlines recently for her expletive-laced call to impeach President Trump.
