White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley appears on Fox News with Jeanine Pirro to discuss the current partial government shutdown and the impasse between the White House and Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

(more…)

30 Minutes before President Trump began to outline his compromise proposal (4:00pm, from the White House), Speaker Nancy Pelosi auto-published the response position of Democrats, NO DEAL:

(From The Speaker) “Democrats were hopeful that the President was finally willing to re-open government and proceed with a much-needed discussion to protect the border.
“Unfortunately, initial reports make clear that his proposal is a compilation of several previously rejected initiatives, each of which is unacceptable and in total, do not represent a good faith effort to restore certainty to people’s lives. It is unlikely that any one of these provisions alone would pass the House, and taken together, they are a non-starter. For one thing, this proposal does not include the permanent solution for the Dreamers and TPS recipients that our country needs and supports. (read more)

President Trump outlined a common-sense bipartisan solution to reopen government.  Nancy Pelosi took a zero-sum position and rejected the proposal.  Without pressure from ‘moderate’ democrats (if any exist), the impasse continues.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Leader Steny Hoyer and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer are on pre-scheduled vacation until January 25th.
(more…)

President Donald Trump will be making a widely anticipated announcement on the government shutdown and border crisis from the White House today.  The speech will likely outline a proposal to end the partial government shutdown.
The president is anticipated to outline a proposal for $5.7 billion for physical border security in exchange for “The Bridge Act” which would extend protections for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), and legislation to extend the legal status of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders.  Anticipated start time 4:00pm EST.
UPDATE: Video Added

(more…)

Earlier today President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo traveled to Dover Air Force Base to participate in a solemn tribute to fallen Americans.  President Trump saluted the casket carrying civilian contractor Scott A. Wirtz of St. Louis, Missouri, as his body was carried from a C-17 military aircraft into a waiting van.

.
Scott Wirtz and three other Americans were killed in a suicide bombing Wednesday in the northern Syrian town of Manbij.  He was assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency as an operations support specialist.
(more…)

Earlier today President Donald Trump left the White House for an unannounced trip to Dover Air Force Base where he met with the families of four Americans killed in a suicide bombing in Syria last week.

.
President Trump described this trip to the Delaware base as the most difficult task of a commander in chief. “When I’m going to meet relatives of some of our great great heroes that have fallen, I think it might be the toughest thing I have to do as president,” he said. “We’ve been hitting ISIS very hard over the last three weeks, in particular over the last three weeks, and it’s moving along very well. But when I took over it was a total mess,” President Trump added. “You do have to ask yourself — we’re killing ISIS for Russia, for Iran, for Syria, for Iraq, for a lot of other places. At some point, we want to bring our people back home.”
(more…)

Recap video highlighting 24 hours in the U.S. media news cycle.

(more…)

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 †

A big day for geopolitical moves.

Earlier today President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and North Korean Minister Kim Yong Chol held a 90 minute meeting at the White House discussing ongoing talks and negotiations between the U.S. and North Korea.

Following the meeting the White House announced there would be a second summit between President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong-un:

“President Donald J. Trump met with Kim Yong Chol for an hour and half, to discuss denuclearization and a second summit, which will take place near the end of February. The President looks forward to meeting with Chairman Kim at a place to be announced at a later date.”  (link)

(Via Fox News) […] The face-to-face came after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Kim Yong-chol, North Korea’s lead negotiator, in the nation’s capital early Friday morning to negotiate terms that could lead to a second nuclear summit between Trump and Pyongyang leader Kim Jong-un.

(more…)

All day the left-wing media have been breathlessly reporting on a Buzzfeed claim citing reports from Michael Cohen.  In a story published Thursday, BuzzFeed cited two unnamed federal law enforcement officials involved in an investigation on the matter who said Cohen acknowledged to Mueller’s office that he was instructed by Trump in 2017 to lie to Congress about the now-abandoned real estate deal to build a Trump Tower in Russia.
Except there’s a problem…. well, it never happened. The claim was so ridiculous the Special Counsel spokesperson Peter Carr just made a statement:  #FakeNews.

(LINK)

Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office on Friday issued a rare statement disputing a bombshell news report claiming President Trump directed Michael Cohen to lie about the timing of discussions over a proposed Trump Tower project in Moscow.

(more…)