House Speaker Nancy Pelosi starts shifting the semantic granules to avoid a political loss.  The financing for, and construction of, a see-through fencing system (Trump’s position) is the request of DHS and Border Patrol, and supported by the vast majority of Americans.
Today, Speaker Pelosi starts by claiming no wall will ever be permitted, then garbles her way through a pretzel response by saying “Normandy Barriers” being replaced by “Normandy See-Through Fencing”, is ok.  She’s trying to avoid a political loss. Watch:

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This is the clearest indication that Pelosi knows: (a) she’s losing the argument; and (b) the topic is now politically hazardous to her team.  It is clear that Predator Trump also smells blood in the political water.  He sees Pelosi trying to claim a “Normandy Fence” is not a wall.  He strikes:

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Fox News Catherine Herridge files a report covering the relationships between Glenn Simpson, Nellie Ohr, Christopher Steele, Bruce Ohr and the DOJ and FBI.

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In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the Donald Trump Administration and Presidency.

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

President Trump Twitter @POTUS / Vice President Pence Twitter @VP

Sarah H Sanders Twitter @SHSanders45

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

President Trump gave an exclusive interview to the Daily Caller.  Part of that interview entailed President Trump outlining the back-story behind him signing the Omnibus spending bill and a promise from Paul Ryan.

[Transcript]THE DAILY CALLER: Well, the people who elected you are very interested in the immigration decision and what’s going on with this negotiation. Republicans in charge of Congress for two years didn’t get to your wall promise in Congress. How big of a roadblock to wall funding was Paul Ryan, now that he’s gone?
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, I was going to veto the omnibus bill and Paul told me in the strongest of language, ‘Please don’t do that, we’ll get you the wall.’ And I said, ‘I hope you mean that, because I don’t like this bill,’ although I love the bill for what it did for the military. And therefore, if it weren’t for the military, I would have vetoed it.
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Today Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham sends a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray requesting a briefing on the FBI conduct during the raid and arrest of 66-year-old Roger Stone.
However, sorry, I can’t let this go unnoticed. This letter is pure Decepticon politics.
Just yesterday FBI Director Chris Wray gave testimony before the senate for over four hours. If Republicans in the senate were actually concerned about the issue, why didn’t a single senator spend 30 seconds to ask about Wray about it?  I digress…
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This is the second time in two weeks when we have seen an actual public policy discussion where Democrats are casually advocating for ‘post-birth abortion’.   I can’t even type about this level of sheer horror without praying…. Madness. Evil madness.  How is this conversation even possible?
Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, who is a pediatrician, is asked about a new State bill (thankfully it failed) that would have lifted all restrictions on third trimester abortions in Virginia.

If a mother is in labor…the infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother”

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Russia and China have invested billions in Venezuela to prop-up the Maduro regime. On Monday the U.K. denied Maduro access to $1.2 billion in gold held by the Bank of England. On Monday night a Russian aircraft landed in Caracus. On Tuesday it was reported that 20 tonnes of Venezuela gold bars have gone missing (link).

“President Donald J. Trump spoke today with Venezuelan Interim President Juan Guaido to congratulate him on his historic assumption of the presidency and to reinforce President Trump’s strong support for Venezuela’s fight to regain its democracy.”
“Interim President Guaido thanked President Trump for the United States’ commitment to freedom and prosperity in Venezuela and the region, and noted the importance of the large protests across Venezuela against former dictator Maduro, set to occur today and Saturday. They agreed to maintain regular communication to support Venezuela’s path back to stability, and to rebuild the bilateral relationship between the United States and Venezuela.”  ~ White House

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Giddy up.  Two days of intense trade discussions begin today in the Eisenhower building led by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and his Chinese counterpart Vice Premier Liu He. The stakes are high as the deadline for an agreement is March 2nd.
Ambassador Lighthizer is joined by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and China’s arch nemesis, White House trade advisor Peter Navarro.

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Adding to the intensity, the United States just charged Chinese telecommunications company Huawei Technologies and its chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, with conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions on Iran by doing business through a subsidiary.  Ms. Meng was arrested in Canada at the request of the United States; her extradition has been requested by the Department of Justice.
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So far the joint house committee transcripts have been leaked to: John Solomon (The Hill), The Epoch Times, The New York Times, and now The Daily Caller.  Someone is trying to get additional traction to these structured transcripts.
The content is also interesting.  The only thing we knew previously about the testimony of Nellie Ohr was that she evoked ‘spousal privilege’ during her deposition.  However, now the Daily Caller is reporting that Nellie Ohr gave testimony about her research with Fusion GPS, to include doing research on Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr’s travels:

Daily Caller – The wife of a Justice Department official who worked for Fusion GPS during the 2016 campaign told Congress in 2018 that one of her tasks at the opposition research firm was to research President Donald Trump’s children, including their business activities and travel.
Nellie Ohr, a former contractor for Fusion GPS, also told lawmakers during an Oct. 19 deposition that she recalls that Christopher Steele gave her husband, Justice Department official Bruce Ohr, materials from the infamous anti-Trump dossier funded by Democrats.

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