Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) officially launched her 2020 presidential bid Sunday in her hometown of Oakland, California, delivering a stern repudiation of President Trump's policies and a vow to fight for the most vulnerable Americans.
What she said: "My whole life I have only one client: the people. And fight for the people means fighting for a more fair criminal justice system. … For the people, meant fighting for middle-class families who had been defrauded by banks and lost their homes in the Great Recession."
The state of play: A top sovereign-debt lawyer has proposed one huge next step the White House (and only the White House) could take. It would be much more effective than $20 million in cash — and it would cost nothing at all.
Venezuela suspended its demand for all for U.S. diplomatic personnel to leave the country this weekend amid continued efforts by Washington and its allies to oust embattled President Nicolás Maduro, AP reports.
Why it matters: The move, which came just days after Maduro severed relations with the U.S. due to President Trump's decision to recognize opposition leader Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s interim president, reduces the most immediate risk of a confrontation between the two nations.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said on ABC's "This Week" that former Trump adviser Roger Stone, who was indicted Friday in the Mueller investigation, is in "grave danger" from a "pretty damning indictment" if he goes to trial and that President Trump knows a pardon is not "politically viable."
At last night's Alfalfa Club dinner — a black-tie cotillion for titans of government and business — physician and former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist [corrected] pretended to give a grim, gloved medical exam to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
The big picture: Don't worry. That's not the fun part. The dinner is off-camera and off the record, but a little bird tells me that former Secretary of State John Kerry, the outgoing Alfalfa president, had a patter that included these lines: "Donald Trump could be the first president to go to the inaugural of his successor in a limo with license plates made by his campaign manager."
Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney refused to say whether or not President Trump would be willing to accept less than his desired $5.7 billion for funding a border wall during an interview on "Fox News Sunday." He told John Roberts, "This is not something where the president's married to a number, he's married to border security."
The big picture: Republicans and Democrats reached an agreement on Friday to end a 35-day partial government shutdown without funding Trump's wall but promised to continue to hold negotiations on border security until government funding lapses again on Feb. 8.
President Trump cited misleading statistics from Texas in a Sunday morning tweet to claim that voter fraud around the country is out of control.
"58,000 non-citizens voted in Texas, with 95,000 non-citizens registered to vote. These numbers are just the tip of the iceberg. All over the country, especially in California, voter fraud is rampant. Must be stopped. Strong voter ID! @foxandfriends."
Reality check: The Texas secretary of state compiled a list last week of 95,000 registered voters — 58,000 of whom voted in an election between 1996 and 2018 — that provided some documentation indicating they were not a citizen when obtaining an ID and advised counties around the state to check the citizenship status of these individuals, per the Texas Tribune. The Tribune notes that the state specifically flagged the names as "WEAK" matches and noted that they "could have become naturalized citizens" over the 22-year period.
After the 2016 election, Democrats focused on winning back white working-class voters who supported Donald Trump. The 2020 target voter is already different.
Driving the news: Democrats running for president in 2020 — even some who haven't announced yet — have been meeting behind the scenes to make sure their economic policies and messages address racial inequities. It's a sign that they're more willing to acknowledge the decisive role voters of color have played in recent Democratic victories.
In the wake of a shutdown defeat and the indictment of yet another associate — both of which have underscored a months-long losing streak for the president — some prominent Republicans are urging the party to ditch Trump ahead of the 2020 primary, the New York Times reports.
The big picture: Most Republicans are of the opinion that Trump is "unassailable" in a GOP primary, but some are anxious enough about his vulnerabilities that they're looking at Larry Hogan, the popular centrist governor of Maryland, as a possible alternative. Hogan's inauguration speech after winning reelection in November was viewed as "an unmistakable act of aggression" by the White House, and his planned trip to Iowa in March and meetings with "Never Trump Republicans" are fueling speculation that he may step into the ring, per Politico.
U.S. politics is veering toward a potential transformation in which both major parties are competing to capture a single constituency — millions of Americans, from schoolteachers to steelworkers, who have fallen on hard times.
The big picture: The party that successfully wins over this constituency in 2020, crossing gender, race, ethnicity and age, could hold power for a generation.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a statement Friday in response to the arrest of longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone, in which she claimed that Stone's indictment "makes clear that there was a deliberate, coordinated attempt by Trump campaign officials to influence the 2016 election and subvert the will of the American people."
"It is staggering that the President has chosen to surround himself with people who violated the integrity of our democracy and lied to the FBI and Congress about it."
The big picture: Pelosi points out that the 37 indictments issued by Robert Mueller, as well Trump's repeated attempts to undermine the special counsel's investigation, raise questions about his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The New York Times reported earlier this month that Trump has privately considered withdrawing from NATO, which Pelosi says would be a "massive victory for Putin."
