President Trump made a number of false claims Monday night during his rally in El Paso as he lobbied for building a southern border wall — including a claim that the arena the rally was held in could fit 8,000 people and that the El Paso Fire Department allowed him to let in 10,000.
Reality check: The fire department said the arena is actually capable of holding even fewer people than that — about 6,500 — and that they did not give Trump permission to admit people beyond the capacity, per El Paso Times. Trump also underestimated the size of Beto O’Rourke’s competing rally, claiming there were between 15 and 300 people. Estimates suggest O'Rourke had between 7,000 and 15,000 people in attendance.
The Treasury's public debt exceeded $22 trillion today, the Associated Press reports. That figure has climbed at a faster pace following the enactment of President Trump's tax cut bill in December 2017.
The big picture: When Trump took office, the debt stood at $19.95 trillion — but the rising national debt is not an issue specific to this administration. It has been increasing over the last century, accelerating significantly under the presidencies of George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Tuesday released rapper 21 Savage on bond and granted him an "expedited" deportation hearing, more than a week after he was arrested and detained for overstaying his visa, according to his attorneys.
Background: According to ICE, 21 Savage, whose real name is Shéyaa Bin Abraham-Joseph, is a U.K. national and entered the U.S. legally in July 2005. He failed to leave, however, and was unlawfully present when his visa expired in 2006.
House Judiciary chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) said Tuesday his panel has retained two high profile white collar lawyers to provide advice to Democrats and explore legal and ethics inquiries involving President Trump and his administration.
Why it matters: Nadler did not disclose many details about the inquiries Norman Eisen, a former Obama administration ethics czar and watchdog, and Barry Berke, a prominent criminal defense attorney, would be involved with. However, both are vocal Trump critics and have published writings outlining a case for impeaching or indicting the president for obstructing justice, CNN reports.
56% of Americans trust special counsel Robert Mueller's version of the facts regarding his investigation, compared to 33% who prefer President Trump's, according to a Washington Post-Schar School poll released Tuesday.
By the numbers: A little more than 40% of Americans believe that Mueller has so far proven that the Trump campaign lied about their contact with Russians — and those results skew predictably along partisan lines. But more than 60% of Americans believe that Trump should face impeachment charges should Mueller conclude that Trump personally obstructed justice or directed his campaign subordinates to collude with Russia during the 2016 presidential election.
Mark Kelly, a former U.S. Navy captain and retired astronaut, announced Tuesday in a video posted to Twitter that he will run in 2020 as a Democrat for the Arizona Senate seat that was held by John McCain until his death.
The big picture: Kelly is the husband of former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who survived a 2011 shooting in Tucson. In 2013, the two founded a gun control advocacy organization. Said Kelly in his announcement video: "We've seen this retreat from science and data and facts and if we don't take these issues seriously, we can't solve these problems."
Top congressional lawmakers told reporters late Monday that they have reached a bipartisan legislative agreement that would avert another partial government shutdown later this week, the Associated Press reports.
Why it matters: The news came minutes before President Trump was set to speak before a campaign-style rally in El Paso, Texas, focused on immigration and border issues. While lawmakers did not immediately release details of the agreement, which comes after budget talks collapsed over the weekend due to Democratic demands to limit the number of immigrant detentions, two Democratic Hill sources confirmed to Axios that it includes $1.375 billion for a physical border barrier with restrictions — far less than the $5.7 billion initially requested by Trump.
Former White House communications aide Cliff Sims, who released the White House insider memoir "Team of Vipers" last month, filed a lawsuit Tuesday against President Trump, accusing him of directly using his campaign to violate his ex-employees' free-speech and free-press rights by improperly seeking retribution, the New York Times first reported.
President Trump’s former personal attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen, has postponed his scheduled closed-door appearance Tuesday before the Senate Intelligence Committee due to "post-surgery medical needs," his attorney said Monday in a statement.
Details: Cohen's attorney, Lanny Davis, said that the panel has accepted his client’s request for a delay and that a "future date will be announced by the committee." Cohen recently had shoulder surgery, and he is due to begin a three-year prison sentence on March 6 for campaign finance violations, tax evasion and lying to Congress. He is currently expected to testify before the House Intelligence Committee on Feb. 28.
Democratic 2020 presidential candidate Kamala Harris, a junior senator from California, declared her support for legalizing marijuana at the federal level Monday on the syndicated radio show "The Breakfast Club."
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) jumped into the White House race yesterday, and her speech's climate lines are worth breaking down:
"The people are on our side when it comes to climate change. Why? Because like you and I, they believe in science. That's why in the first 100 days of my administration, I will reinstate the clean power rules and the gas mileage standards and put forth sweeping legislation to invest in green jobs and infrastructure. And on day one, we will rejoin the international climate agreement."
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) has attracted more online and media attention this year than any Democrat running for president.
Why it matters: Like President Trump in 2016, Ocasio-Cortez has mastered Twitter while at the same time acting as a magnet in the digital and cable news ecosystem.
Bipartisan negotiations to strike a border security dealand to keep the federal government open have broken down over the past 24 hours.
Driving the news: "Negotiations reached an impasse on Saturday, primarily over detention beds and interior enforcement, according to four sources familiar with the talks," Politico reports.
About 10 days ago, a deputy to Trump's top trade negotiator gave a shockingly optimistic forecast on the political fate of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) — the president’s renegotiated NAFTA deal. To the bemusement of two sources on the call, C.J. Mahoney, Robert Lighthizer’s deputy, said he figured the USMCA could get through Congress with huge bipartisan support by the end of April.
Between the lines: Nobody we've spoken to on Capitol Hill thinks Mahoney's prediction is remotely possible. While the two sources on the call were impressed with his technical grasp of the trade deal, they called his comments on its political fate "naïve," saying they betrayed only a tenuous comprehension of the USMCA's troubled standing with Congress.
