Trump Suggests 2-Phase Immigration Deal for ‘Dreamers’
Seeking a bipartisan compromise to avoid a government shutdown, President Donald Trump suggested Tuesday that an immigration deal could be reached in two phases — first by addressing young immigrants and border security with what he called a “bill of love,” then by making comprehensive changes that have long eluded Congress.
Trump held a lengthy meeting with Republican and Democratic lawmakers seeking a solution for hundreds of thousands of young people who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children. Trump last year ended the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which shielded more than 700,000 people from deportation and gave then the right to work legally in the country. He gave Congress until March to find a fix.
The president, congressional Republicans and Democrats expressed optimism for a deal just 10 days before a government shutdown deadline. Trump expressed a willingness to be flexible in finding an agreement.
“I think my positions are going to be what the people in this room come up with,” Trump said during a Cabinet Room meeting with a bipartisan group of 20 lawmakers. A group of journalists observed the meandering meeting for an extraordinary length of time — about 55 minutes — that involved Trump seeking input from Democrats and Republicans alike in a freewheeling exchange on the contentious issue.
Fusion-GPS Transcript on Trump-Russia Dossier, Released by Dianne Feinstein
On Tuesday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) unexpectedly released the transcript of congressional investigators' August 2017 interview with Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson, whose firm was behind a controversial dossier alleging ties between President Donald Trump and Russians.
Feinstein's move represents an escalation of partisan tensions that have long been simmering on the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley. Simpson had called for the transcript of his appearance to be made public, but Republican leaders so far had not agreed to release it.
A spokesman for Grassley said Feinstein posted the transcript with "no agreement" from committee Republicans.
"The American people deserve the opportunity to see what he said and judge for themselves,” Feinstein, the top Democrat on the judiciary committee, said in a statement about her decision to release the Simpson transcript.
The Obama’s Use Oprah to Get Back into the White House
It was surprising that no one in the mainstream media picked up on the fact that Barack and Michelle Obama are the driving force behind the possibility of Oprah running for president. Barack Obama is furious that his accomplishments are being dissembled by President Trump's administration, so he wants to get back in the game. How do you do that? Hello, Oprah. Come on over here.
There is no difference between Oprah Winfrey's point of view and Barack and Michelle Obama's point of view. None. That speech at the Golden Globes wasn’t written by Oprah Winfrey. That was a professional speech.
Now, the question is: does Oprah Winfrey really want to put herself through the process of running for president, which as everybody knows is nasty and grueling? We won’t know unless it happens, but everybody has missed the essential point of this story which is that the Obama machine is furious about what's happening and they want to get back into the White House.
Current Investigations to Keep an Eye on in 2018:
Will Mueller and Trump engage in a face-to-face interview?
President Trump could sit down with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's investigators as soon as the next few weeks, though any cooperation from the president is being carefully negotiated right now, according to The Washington Post.
The Post reports that Trump is eager to sit down with Mueller's team in an effort to clear his name, but his lawyers are understandably more cautious. They would like to set parameters for the discussion and possibly respond to certain questions via written answers, as President Ronald Reagan did with Iran-contra.
According to the Washington Post report, Trump's legal team is talking about possible formats in the case that Mueller asks to interview Trump in the Russia investigation. Trump's legal team has talked about options for the interview that include written responses to questions instead of a sit-down interview.
Trump's legal team is also looking to find out if Trump would be directly interviewed by Mueller.
According to NBC News, Trump's legal team is also talking about whether the potential interview could be avoided through a compromise.
Trump has repeatedly dismissed the Russia investigation as a witch hunt and has denied collusion.
Reopening of the Clinton Email Investigation
Justice Department officials are taking a fresh look at Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while she served as secretary of State (2009-2013).
An unnamed ally of Attorney General Jeff Sessions described the reopening of the Clinton email investigation as an effort to gather new details on how Clinton and her aides handled classified material.
Officials’ questions include how much classified information was sent over Clinton’s server; who put that information into an unclassified environment, and how; and which investigators knew about these matters and when.
The Sessions ally also said officials have questions about immunity agreements that Clinton aides may have made.
Reopening of the Clinton Foundation Investigation
The Justice Department has launched a new inquiry into whether the Clinton Foundation engaged in any pay-to-play politics or other illegal activities while Hillary Clinton served as secretary of State.
FBI agents from Little Rock, Ark., where the foundation was started, have taken the lead in the investigation and have interviewed at least one witness in the last month, and law enforcement officials said additional activities are expected in the coming weeks.
The officials, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, said the probe is examining whether the Clintons promised or performed any policy favors in return for largesse to their charitable efforts or whether donors made commitments of donations in hopes of securing government outcomes.
The probe may also examine whether any tax-exempt assets were converted for personal or political use and whether the foundation complied with applicable tax laws, the officials said.
Officials said the Justice Department was also re-examining whether there are any unresolved issues from the closed case into Clinton's transmission of classified information through her personal email server.
House Intel Committee Investigation into Fusion GPS and the Anti-Trump Dossier
House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence members gained access to all Department of Justice and FBI documents it possesses on the Trump dossier.
The committee was able to review all FBI and DOJ documents on the Trump dossier, former MI-6 British agent Christopher Steele who authored the dossier, and Fusion GPS, the political opposition firm that hired Steele.
DOJ also provided any Obama administration applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court based on the dossier, which could approve the surveillance of the Trump transition team or Trump associates, according to a source with direct knowledge of the case.
The committee also will have access to interview key Justice Department and FBI officials later in January.
FBI agents' text messages spur congressional probe into possible news leaks
Republican-led House and Senate committees are investigating whether leaders of the Russia counterintelligence investigation had contacts with the news media that resulted in improper leaks, prompted in part by text messages amongst senior FBI officials mentioning specific reporters, news organizations and articles.
In one exchange, FBI counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok and bureau lawyer Lisa Page engaged in a series of texts shortly before Election Day 2016 suggesting they knew in advance about an article in The Wall Street Journal and would need to feign stumbling onto the story so it could be shared with colleagues.
“Article is out, but hidden behind paywall so can’t read it,” Page texted Strzok on Oct. 24, 2016. “Wsj? Boy that was fast,” Strzok texted back, using the initials of the famed financial newspaper. “Should I ‘find’ it and tell the team?”
The text messages, which were reviewed by The Hill, show the two FBI agents discussed how they might make it appear they innocently discovered the article, such as through Google News alerts.
Election 2020 Betting Odds
The site electionbettingodds.com aggregates the chances of someone winning the presidential election and is cited by political pollsters. It is based in the U.K., where regulations are less onerous. It does not accept American traders due to regulations.
The site is now predicting that Oprah has the best chance of the entire Democratic field of taking on Trump and winning.
Trump has a 28 percent chance of winning the presidency, re-election in 2020. Oprah, 9 percent. Mike Pence, 7 percent. Kamala Harris, she's a senator from California, Democrat, 6 percent. Elizabeth Warren, 6 percent. Bernie Sanders, 5 percent. Joe Biden, 4 percent. Michelle Obama, 3 percent. Dwayne The Rock Johnson, 2 percent.
North Korea Will Attend the 2018 Winter Olympics
North Korea has agreed to send a delegation to next month's Winter Olympics in South Korea and to hold talks with Seoul to ease military tensions, in the most significant thaw in relations between the neighboring states in years.
Officials from the two nations met face to face on Tuesday for the first time in more than two years in the border town of Panmunjom, known as "truce village," in the Korean peninsula's heavily fortified demilitarized zone.
North Korea will send a high-level delegation comprising athletes, a cheering squad, an art troupe, a visitors' group, a Taekwondo demonstration team and a press corps, a closing joint statement said.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) welcomed the agreements between North and South Korea on Tuesday, and said it would discuss the details before making an official decision on the country's participation.
North Korea hasn't sent a delegation the Winter Olympics since 1992.
FGCU Police Presence Planned for Start of 'White Racism' Class
At Florida Gulf Coast University, in Fort Myers, Assistant Professor Ted Thornhill has started teaching a "White Racism" course. Thornhill is an assistant professor of sociology at the university.
On Tuesday, which was the first day of the class, Assistant Professor Thornhill’s classroom was guarded by two police officers.
Thornhill said out of an abundance of caution he sent campus police 46 pages of disturbing emails and voicemail messages he received after the class was announced. Thornhill said none of the messages threatened violence or a disruption of the class, but some called him racial slurs. A few prospective students told the professor they had safety concerns.
In the course description, it describes the class as the following, “In this course, we will interrogate the concept of race; examine the racist ideologies, laws, policies, and practices that have operated for hundreds of years to maintain white racial domination over those racialized as non-white; and discuss ways to challenge white racism and white supremacy toward promoting an anti-racist society where whiteness is not tied to greater life chances.”
Word of the Day: Palter |
