Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) told ABC affiliate KTUU on Tuesday that she was "disturbed" upon hearing Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's assurance of "total coordination" between himself and White House lawyers in the impeachment trial of President Trump.
Why it matters: A simple majority vote is needed for the Senate to call new witnesses, which McConnell opposes. Democrats view Murkowski as one possible Republican defection, along with other moderates like Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Mitt Romney (R-Utah.)
The S&P 500 has had a return of over 50% during President Trump's first three years in office, more than doubling the average return of 23% at the same point in a presidential term since 1928, CNBC reports.
The big picture: The market, which hit record highs across the three major indices, got a sustained lift in 2019 after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell lowered interest rates three times, the first such moves since the end of the financial crisis.
Mexicans account for more than half of the estimated 21,000 asylum seekers waiting along the U.S.-Mexico border, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Why it matters: The increase in Mexican asylum seekers poses a particular challenge to the Trump administration and its "Remain in Mexico" policy, which requires Central American refugee seekers to remain in Mexico while they await their hearings. It can't apply to Mexicans since international law bans sending people back to the country where they may face persecution.
President Trump’s re-election campaign launched a website Tuesday it proclaims will help his supporters "win arguments with liberal friends, relatives, and snowflakes they encounter during the holidays."
Why it matters: The launch of the Trump campaign's snowflakevictory.com website comes as the U.S. is polarized by politics, in a year marked by the release of the Mueller report on Russian interference in the 2016 election and Trump's impeachment — and the site follows Trump's rhetoric on those and other issues.
A former Trump 2016 campaign staffer alleges in a sex-discrimination lawsuit that she was fired and prevented from a White House job opportunity after becoming pregnant following a relationship with a supervisor.
The allegations: Arlene "A.J." Delgado claims in the suit, filed in federal court in Manhattan, she found herself "excluded from participating in the communications work of the inauguration or in any capacity," after she announced in December 2016 she was pregnant and that the father was Jason Miller, a married senior communications strategist.
