Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Monday took the first major step toward launching a widely anticipated campaign for the presidency, hoping her reputation as a populist fighter can help her navigate a Democratic field that could include nearly two dozen candidates.

“No matter what our differences, most of us want the same thing,” the 69-year-old Massachusetts Democrat said in a video that highlights her family’s history in Oklahoma. “To be able to work hard, play by the same set of rules and take care of the people we love. That’s what I’m fighting for and that’s why today I’m launching an exploratory committee for president.”

Warren burst onto the national scene a decade ago during the financial crisis with calls for greater consumer protections. She quickly became one of the party’s more prominent liberals even as she sometimes fought with Obama administration officials over their response to the market turmoil.

Now, as a likely presidential contender, she is making an appeal to the party’s base. Her video notes the economic challenges facing people of color along with images of a women’s march and Warren’s participation at an LGBT event.

In an email to supporters, Warren said she’d more formally announce a campaign plan early in 2019.

Warren is the most prominent Democrat yet to make a move toward a presidential bid and has long been a favorite target of President Donald Trump.

In mid-December, former Obama housing chief Julian Castro also announced a presidential exploratory committee, which legally allows potential candidates to begin raising money. Outgoing Maryland Rep. John Delaney is the only Democrat so far to have formally announced a presidential campaign.

But that’s likely to change quickly in the new year as other leading Democrats take steps toward White House runs.

Warren enters a Democratic field that’s shaping up as the most crowded in decades, with many of her Senate colleagues openly weighing their own campaigns, as well as governors, mayors and other prominent citizens. One of her most significant competitors could be Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent who is eyeing another presidential run harnessing the same populist rhetoric.

She must also move past a widely panned October release of a DNA test meant to bolster her claim to Native American heritage. The move was intended to rebut Trump’s taunts of Warren as “Pocahontas.” Instead, her use of a genetic test to prove ethnicity spurred controversy that seemed to blunt any argument she sought to make. There was no direct mention of it in the video released Monday.

Warren has the benefit of higher name recognition than many others in the Democratic mix for 2020, thanks to her years as a prominent critic of Wall Street who originally conceived of what became the government’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

She now faces an arduous battle to raise money and capture Democratic primary voters’ attention before Iowa casts its first vote in more than a year. She has an advantage in the $12.5 million left over from her 2018 re-election campaign that she could use for a presidential run.

Warren’s campaign is likely to revolve around the same theme she’s woven into speeches and policy proposals in recent years: battling special interests, paying mind to the nexus between racial and economic inequities.

“America’s middle class is under attack,” Warren said in the video. “How did we get here? Billionaires and big corporations decided they wanted more of the pie. And they enlisted politicians to cut them a fatter slice.”

 
…

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday defended his planned withdrawal of all 2,000 American troops from Syria, attacking critics of the action as chronic complainers.

In a string of Twitter remarks, Trump said, “If anybody but Donald Trump did what I did in Syria, which was an ISIS (Islamic State) loaded mess when I became President, they would be a national hero.”

He said the Islamic State terrorist group that once claimed Raqqa in northern Syria as the capital of its caliphate, “is mostly gone” from Syria and “we’re slowly sending our troops back home to be with their families, while at the same time fighting ISIS remnants.”

Trump stunned U.S. national security aides and lawmakers, Republicans and Democrats alike, by announcing December 19 that he was withdrawing the U.S. troops who had been instrumental in removing most of the jihadist group from northeast Syria and aided Kurdish fighters in their fight against the insurgents.

Critics of the withdrawal said that removing U.S. troops could lead to a resurgence of Islamic State operations.

One critic of the move, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, normally a Trump loyalist, met with the U.S. leader Sunday and later said the president remains committed to defeating Islamic State. Graham suggested Trump may slow his planned 30-day withdrawal, but the White House has not commented on Graham’s interpretation of his talks with Trump.

“I think we’re in a pause situation where we are re-evaluating what’s the best way to achieve the president’s objective of having (other countries) pay more and do more” in the war on terrorism, Graham said.

In his Monday tweets, Trump said, “I campaigned on getting out of Syria and other places. Now when I start getting out the Fake News Media, or some failed Generals who were unable to do the job before I arrived, like to complain about me & my tactics, which are working. Just doing what I said I was going to do! Except the results are FAR BETTER than I ever said they were going to be! I campaigned against the NEVER ENDING WARS, remember!”

Trump contended, “I am the only person in America who could say that, “I’m bringing our great troops back home, with victory,” and get BAD press. It is Fake News and Pundits who have FAILED for years that are doing the complaining. If I stayed in Endless Wars forever, they would still be unhappy!”
…

U.S. President Donald Trump acknowledged Monday that not all of the barrier he wants to build along the Mexican border would be a concrete wall he has long called for.

“An all concrete Wall was NEVER ABANDONED, as has been reported by the media,” Trump contended in a Twitter remark. He was disputing John Kelly, his outgoing White House chief of staff, who said in an interview over the weekend that the Trump administration discarded the idea of a “solid concrete wall” early in Trump’s two-year tenure as president.

But Trump conceded, “Some areas will be all concrete but the experts at Border Patrol prefer a Wall that is see through (thereby making it possible to see what is happening on both sides). Makes sense to me!”

Trump won the cheers of his most ardent loyalists in his successful 2016 presidential campaign with his call for a solid concrete wall along the 3,200-kilometer U.S.-Mexican border, claiming Mexico would pay for it.

As president, however, Trump has sought U.S. taxpayer funding, but Congress has balked, leading to the ongoing shutdown of a quarter of U.S. government operations, furloughing 800,000 government workers and forcing another 420,000 to work without pay. 

WATCH: Free Meals for Furloughed Workers

The shutdown is now in its 10th day with no end in sight, and likely extending past Thursday when a new Congress is seated, with opposition Democrats taking control of the House of Representatives from Trump’s Republican Party. Republicans will maintain their majority in the Senate, leaving Washington with a politically divided government in the second two years of Trump’s first term.

Trump wants $5 billion as a down payment on the barrier that could cost more than $20 billion, but Democrats have only agreed to $1.6 billion to improve border security, but no wall money. Trump and Democratic lawmakers have not held any negotiations for days over the wall dispute.

Kelly told the Los Angeles Times, “To be honest, it’s not a wall. The president still says ‘wall’ — oftentimes frankly he’ll say ‘barrier’ or ‘fencing,’ now he’s tended toward steel slats.”

Kelly added, “But we left a solid concrete wall early on in the administration, when we asked people what they needed and where they needed it.”

In a second Twitter remark, Trump said, “I campaigned on Border Security, which you cannot have without a strong and powerful Wall. Our Southern Border has long been an “Open Wound,” where drugs, criminals (including human traffickers) and illegals would pour into our Country. Dems should get back here (and) fix now!”

White House officials said talks to resolve the border barrier funding impasse have broken off.

Trump on Sunday tweeted that Democrats “left town and are not concerned about the safety and security of Americans!”

Democrats scoffed at the accusation.

“This is the same president who repeatedly promised the American people that Mexico would pay for the wall that he plans to build,” New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries said on ABC’s This Week program. “Now he’s trying to extract $5 billion from the American taxpayer to pay for something that clearly would be ineffective.”

“President Trump has taken hundreds of thousands of federal employees’ pay hostage in a last ditch effort to fulfill a campaign promise,” the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat, Dick Durbin of Illinois, tweeted. “Building a wall from sea to shining sea won’t make us safer or stop drugs from coming into our country.”

In a series of tweets on Friday, Trump again threatened to close the entire U.S.-Mexico border and cut aid to Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador if Congress failed to give him money to fund the wall. He also asked for changes in what he said was the United States’ “ridiculous immigration laws.” 

Closing the U.S.-Mexican border would mean disrupting a $1.68 billion-a-day trade relationship between the two countries. In addition, immigrant advocates have called any move to seal the border “disgraceful.”

In a tweet Saturday, Trump linked Democrats’ “pathetic immigration policies” with the deaths of two Guatemalan children while in U.S. custody. 

His comments, the first to reference the children’s deaths, came the same day Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was finishing a two-day visit to the southern U.S. border, where she said in a statement, “The system is clearly overwhelmed and we must work together to address this humanitarian crisis.”

Trump has declined to comment on whether he might accept less than $5 billion for wall funding. When asked how long he thought the shutdown would last, Trump told reporters, “Whatever it takes.” 

Democrats have blamed Trump for “plunging the country into chaos” and have noted that Trump, before the partial work stoppage took effect, said he would be “proud” to “own” a shutdown over border wall funding.
…

A senior Republican U.S. senator said he emerged from a White House meeting with President Donald Trump on Sunday reassured that Trump is committed to defeating Islamic State even as he plans to withdraw American troops from Syria.

Senator Lindsey Graham had warned that removing all U.S. forces from Syria would hurt national security by allowing Islamic State to rebuild, betraying U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters of the YPG militia battling remnants of the militant group, and enhancing Iran’s ability to threaten Israel.

During a morning television interview, Graham said he would ask Trump to slow down the troop withdrawal, which was announced earlier this month and drew widespread criticism.

An ally of Trump, although he has opposed some of his foreign policy decisions, Graham was more upbeat after the meeting.

“We talked about Syria. He told me some things I didn’t know that made me feel a lot better about where we’re headed in Syria,” Graham told reporters at the White House.

“We still have some differences but I will tell you that the president is thinking long and hard about Syria – how to withdraw our forces but at the same time achieve our national security interests,” Graham said.

Asked if Trump had agreed to any slowing down of the troop withdrawal, Graham said: “I think the president’s very committed to making sure that when we leave Syria, that ISIS is completely defeated.”

He said Trump’s trip to Iraq last week was an eye-opener and he understood the need to “finish the job” with Islamic State, also known as ISIS.

“I think the president has come up with a plan with his generals that makes sense to me,” Graham said. He gave no further details of that plan.

Graham also said Trump was committed to making sure Turkey did not clash with the YPG forces once U.S. troops leave Syria, and was assuring the NATO ally that it would have a buffer zone in the region to help protect its own interests.

Turkey views the YPG as a branch of its own Kurdish separatist movement and is threatening to launch an offensive against the group, igniting fears of significant civilian casualties.

The Pentagon says it is considering plans for a “deliberate and controlled withdrawal.” One option, according to a person familiar with the discussions, is for a 120-day pullout period.

Graham is an influential lawmaker on national security policy who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

He joined other Republicans and Democrats in criticizing Trump’s order for the pullout of all 2,000 U.S. troops deployed in Syria in support of anti-Islamic State fighters made up mostly of Kurds.

U.S. commanders planning the U.S. withdrawal are recommending that YPG fighters battling Islamic State be allowed to keep U.S.-supplied weapons, according to U.S. officials.

That proposal would likely anger Turkey, where Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, holds talks this week.

Trump decided on the Syria withdrawal in a phone call with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, ignoring the advice of top national security aides and without consulting lawmakers or U.S. allies participating in anti-Islamic State operations. The decision prompted Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to resign.

 
…

The U.S. government is expected to remain partially closed for most of this week, and possibly even longer, as federal spending negotiations between the White House and lawmakers remain at a standstill. VOA’s Michael Bowman reports, at issue is President Donald Trump’s demand for wall construction along the U.S.-Mexico border, where a second undocumented child in U.S. custody died last week.
…

The partial U.S. government shutdown is nearing the 10-day mark, with no end in sight, as federal spending negotiations remain stalled between President Donald Trump and lawmakers heading into 2019.

Trump continues to demand billions of dollars in federal spending for wall construction along the U.S.-Mexico border. Democratic lawmakers back a modest increase in overall border security funding but resolutely oppose a wall. Spending authority for one fourth of the U.S. government expired on December 22.

White House officials said talks to resolve the impasse have broken off.

Trump on Sunday tweeted that Democrats “left town and are not concerned about the safety and security of Americans!”

Democrats scoffed at the accusation.

“This is the same president who repeatedly promised the American people that Mexico would pay for the wall that he plans to build,” New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries said on ABC’s This Week program. “Now he’s trying to extract $5 billion from the American taxpayer to pay for something that clearly would be ineffective.”

“President Trump has taken hundreds of thousands of federal employees’ pay hostage in a last ditch effort to fulfill a campaign promise,” the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat, Dick Durbin of Illinois, tweeted. “Building a wall from sea to shining sea won’t make us safer or stop drugs from coming into our country.”

In a series of tweets on Friday, Trump again threatened to close the entire U.S.-Mexico border and cut aid to Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador if Congress failed to give him money to fund the wall. He also asked for changes in what he said was the United States’ “ridiculous immigration laws.”

Closing the U.S.-Mexican border would mean disrupting a $1.68 billion-a-day trade relationship between the two countries. In addition, immigrant advocates have called any move to seal the border “disgraceful.”

In a tweet Saturday, Trump linked Democrats’ “pathetic immigration policies” with the deaths of two Guatemalan children while in U.S. custody.

His comments, the first to reference the children’s deaths, came the same day Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was finishing a two-day visit to the southern U.S. border, where she said in a statement, “The system is clearly overwhelmed and we must work together to address this humanitarian crisis.”

Trump has declined to comment on whether he might accept less than $5 billion for wall funding. When asked Wednesday how long he thought the shutdown would last, Trump told reporters, “Whatever it takes.”

Out of a workforce of about 2.1 million federal employees, more than 800,000 have been furloughed without pay. About 420,000 of those furloughed employees are still being required to work without pay.

Democrats have blamed Trump for “plunging the country into chaos” and have noted that, weeks ago, Trump said he would be “proud” to “own” a shutdown over border wall funding.

The Republican Party controls the White House, as well as both chambers of Congress. On Thursday, however, a new Congress, with a Democrat-controlled House, will be seated.

 

 
…

Activists urging more states to ban gay conversion therapy for minors are expecting major gains in 2019, thanks to midterm election results and the buzz generated by two well-reviewed films. 

 

Fourteen states and the District of Columbia have already enacted laws prohibiting licensed therapists from trying to change a minor’s sexual orientation. Leaders of a national campaign to ban the practice are hopeful that at least four more states — Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts and New York — will join the ranks in the upcoming legislative sessions. 

 

“We’d be disappointed if we don’t get those this year — they’re overdue,” said Shannon Minter, legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, one of the groups campaigning to impose bans in all 50 states. 

 

The campaign has gained momentum in recent months thanks to the national release of two films dramatizing the experiences of youths who went through conversion therapy — The Miseducation of Cameron Post and the higher-profile Boy Erased starring Lucas Hedges, Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe. 

Joining ‘in droves’

Sam Brinton of the Trevor Project, another of groups leading the ban campaign, said thousands of people have signed up to assist the effort since Boy Erased was released on Nov. 2. 

 

“They’re recognizing this is still a problem and joining our campaigns in droves,” said Brinton, a child of Baptist missionary parents who has written about agonizing conversion therapy sessions experienced as an adolescent in Florida. 

 

Brinton recalls being bound to a table by the therapist for applications of ice, heat and electricity. 

 

Just four days after the Boy Erased release came the midterm elections, which altered the partisan political dynamic at several statehouses and boosted prospects for conversion therapy bans.  

In three of the states now being targeted, previous efforts to enact a ban gained some bipartisan support but were thwarted by powerful Republicans. In Maine, a bill was vetoed last year by GOP Gov. Paul LePage. In New York and Colorado, bills approved in the Democratic-led lower chambers of the legislature died in the Republican-controlled state senates. 

 

In January, however, a Democrat will succeed LePage as Maine’s governor, and Democrats will have control of both legislative chambers in New York and in Colorado, where gay Gov.-elect Jared Polis is believed eager to sign a ban. 

A lead sponsor of the New York ban bill, Democratic Sen. Brad Hoylman, predicted passage would be “straightforward” now that his party controls the Senate. 

 

“For a lot of my colleagues, they consider conversion therapy to be child abuse,” he said. 

Outlook in Massachusetts

 

In Massachusetts, both legislative chambers voted last year in support of a ban but were unable to reconcile different versions of the measure before adjournment. Chances of passage in 2019 are considered strong, and Republican Gov. Charlie Baker, who was re-elected, is viewed as likely to sign such a measure given his strong support for LGBT rights. 

 

More Republican governors like Baker are getting behind the bans, reflecting activists’ belief that opposition to conversion therapy is increasingly bipartisan. 

 

Bills proposing bans are pending or anticipated in several GOP-controlled legislatures, including Florida, Ohio and Utah. LGBT activists are particularly intrigued by Utah because of the possibility that the powerful Mormon church, which in the past supported conversion therapy, might endorse a bill to ban the practice for minors. 

 

In Florida, the proposed ban faces long odds in the legislature in 2019, but activists note that about 20 Florida cities and counties have passed local bans — more than in any other state. 

 

In Ohio, supporters of a bill that would ban conversion therapy for minors realize they have an uphill fight in a legislature with GOP supermajorities.  

 

Still, Sen. Charleta Tavares, a Columbus Democrat, believes her proposal got “new legs” in November. That’s when the state board overseeing counselors, social workers, and marriage and family therapists warned the 40,000 professionals it regulates that anyone found practicing conversion therapy on LGBT patients could lose his or her license.  

 

“I am glad to see that our state boards are carrying this movement, regardless of the inaction by our General Assembly,” Tavares said.  

 

For now, LGBT activists are not seeking to ban conversion therapy for adults. A gay California legislator, Evan Low, withdrew a bill he introduced earlier this year that would have declared conversion therapy a fraudulent practice and banned commercial use of it for adults and minors. Some opponents had threatened to sue to block the bill, saying it would jeopardize free speech and free exercise of religion. 

​Model for movie

 

Low says he may try again after revising his bill. If so, his arguments could be bolstered by input from John Smid, the real-life model for the Boy Erased character who ran a coercive conversion therapy program. 

 

For years, Smid was director of Tennessee-based Love in Action, a ministry that operated such a program. Smid left the organization in 2008. He subsequently renounced the concept that sexual orientation could be changed and apologized for any harm he had caused. In 2014, he married his same-sex partner, with whom he lives in Texas. 

 

Smid recently cooperated with a law firm as it compiled a report about Love in Action for the Washington-based Mattachine Society, which studies past instances of anti-LGBT persecution. 

 

One of the report’s co-authors, Lisa Linsky, said Smid depicted Love in Action as “a complete and utter failure,” with none of its participants actually changing sexual orientation. 
…

U.S. President Donald Trump continued Saturday to stress the need for his proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall as a partial government shutdown, triggered by a stalemate over funding for the project, entered its eighth day.

In a tweet Saturday, Trump said Democrats should take the initiative on ending the shutdown, saying, “I am in the White House waiting for the Democrats to come on over and make a deal” on border security.

A budget standoff remains between Trump, who wants $5 billion in wall funding, and Democratic lawmakers, who back a modest increase in overall border security funding but resolutely oppose a wall.

​Close border, cut aid

In a series of tweets Friday, Trump again threatened to close the entire U.S.-Mexico border and cut aid to Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador if Congress failed to give him money to fund the wall. He also asked for changes in what he said was the United States’ “ridiculous immigration laws.”

Closing the U.S.-Mexican border would mean disrupting a $1.68 billion-a-day trade relationship between the two countries. In addition, immigrant advocates have called any move to seal the border “disgraceful.”

In a tweet Saturday, Trump linked Democrats’ “pathetic immigration policies” with the deaths of two Guatemalan children while they were in U.S. custody.

His comments, the first to reference the children’s deaths, came the same day that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was finishing a two-day visit to the southern U.S. border, where she said in a statement, “The system is clearly overwhelmed and we must work together to address this humanitarian crisis.”

Trump has declined to comment on whether he might accept less than $5 billion for wall funding. When asked Wednesday how long he thought the shutdown would last, Trump told reporters, “Whatever it takes.”

420,000 work without pay

Out of a workforce of about 2.1 million federal employees, more than 800,000 have been furloughed without pay. About 420,000 of those furloughed employees are being required to work without pay.

Democrats have blamed Trump for “plunging the country into chaos” and have noted that, weeks ago, Trump said he would be proud to own a shutdown over border wall funding.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and presumed incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California said in a joint statement, “The president wanted the shutdown, but seems not to know how to get himself out of it.”

The Republican Party controls the White House, as well as both chambers of Congress. Next Thursday, however, a new Congress, with a Democrat-controlled House, will be seated.

Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney told Fox News Channel on Friday, “We’re here, and they know where to find us.”

Mulvaney also blamed Democrats for the continuing shutdown, saying they have refused to negotiate since the White House made an offer last weekend.

Lorella Praeli, deputy political director at the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement that Congress has an obligation to serve as a check on the executive branch.

“This government shutdown is due solely to Trump’s border wall obsession and his refusal to abandon his anti-immigrant agenda, even at the cost of denying hundreds of thousands of federal workers their holiday paychecks and impacting operations at several federal agencies,” Praeli said.

Affected departments 

Among the government agencies affected by the partial shutdown that began Dec. 22 are the departments of Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, Interior and the Executive Office of the President.

Early Saturday, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which had funding through midnight Friday, was shutdown. Many of the agency’s 14,000 employees are being furloughed, EPA spokeswoman Molly Block said. Disaster-response teams and other employees deemed essential would continue to work, she added.

​If the partial shutdown continues, the Smithsonian Institution said it would begin closing its 19 museums, art galleries and National Zoo starting midweek. The Smithsonian attractions drew nearly 21 million visitors by the end of October 2018, according to the institution’s website. It recorded 30 million visitors in 2017

Mexico’s reaction

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told reporters Friday that Trump’s border-closure threat was an internal U.S. government matter.

“We take great care of the relationship with the government of the United States,” Lopez Obrador said. “Of course we will always defend our sovereignty. … We will always protect migrants, defend their human rights.”

Cutting funds to Central American countries would mean a cutback on humanitarian programs, according to State Department data. The aid includes assistance on civilian security, legal development and basic nutrition.

The largest grant was spent to help with agriculture in Guatemala, where the U.S. Agency for International Development says food security is a “grave concern.”

 
…

U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted Saturday Democratic lawmakers should take the initiative to act on ending a partial government shutdown that was triggered by a stalemate over funding for his proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

“I am in the White House waiting for the Democrats to come on over and make a deal on Border Security,” Trump wrote. “From what I hear, they are spending so much time on Presidential Harassment that they have little time left for things like stopping crime and our military!”

Although it is unclear, Trump’s harassment reference may relate to information in a second tweet. He appeared to accuse Special Counsel Robert Mueller of deleting “approximately 19,000 text messages shared between former F.B.I. investigators Lisa Page and Peter Strzok. The two exchanged text messages that were critical of Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign.

A recent investigation by the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General said the text messages have been recovered and concluded the texts were missing due to a technical failure by an F.B.I. automated collection tool.  

Trump’s latest tweets came as the U.S. government was in the eighth day of a partial shutdown. A budget standoff remains between Trump, who wants $5 billion in wall funding, and Democratic lawmakers, who back a modest increase in overall border security funding but resolutely oppose a wall.

On Friday, Trump once again threatened to close the entire U.S.-Mexico border and cut aid to Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador if Congress fails to give him money to fund the wall.

In an earlier series of tweets, Trump also asked to change the “ridiculous immigration laws that our country is saddled with.”

Closing the U.S.-Mexican border would mean disrupting a $1.68 billion-a-day trade relationship between the two countries, according to the office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

Immigrant advocates have called the move to seal the border “disgraceful.”

  

Trump has declined to comment on whether he might accept less than $5 billion for wall funding. When asked Wednesday how long he thinks the shutdown will last, Trump told reporters, “Whatever it takes.”

Democrats have blamed Trump for “plunging the country into chaos” adding that, weeks ago, Trump said he would be “proud” to “own” a shutdown over border wall funding.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and presumed incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California said in a joint statement, “The president wanted the shutdown, but seems not to know how to get himself out of it.”

Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney told Fox News Channel on Friday, “We’re here, and they know where to find us.”

Mulvaney blamed Democrats for the continuing shutdown, saying they have refused to negotiate since the White House made an offer last weekend.

Lorella Praeli, deputy political director at the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement that Congress has an obligation to serve as a check on the executive branch.

  

“This government shutdown is due solely to Trump’s border wall obsession and his refusal to abandon his anti-immigrant agenda, even at the cost of denying hundreds of thousands of federal workers their holiday paychecks and impacting operations at several federal agencies,” Praeli said.

  

Trump also tweeted Friday, “Word is that a new Caravan is forming in Honduras and they are doing nothing about it. We will be cutting off all aid to these 3 countries – taking advantage of U.S. for years!”

VOA has not verified the president’s claim that a new caravan is on its way.

 

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told reporters on Friday that Trump’s border-shutting threat was an internal U.S. government matter.

“We take great care of the relationship with the government of the United States,” Lopez Obrador said. “Of course we will always defend our sovereignty … We will always protect migrants, defend their human rights.”

Cutting funds to Central American countries would mean a cutback on humanitarian programs, according to State Department data. The aid includes assistance on civilian security, legal development and basic nutrition.

  

The largest grant was spent to help with agriculture in Guatemala, where the U.S. Agency for International Development says food security is a “grave concern.”
…

The dissolution of North Carolina’s elections board Friday injected further uncertainty into a still-undecided congressional race as a U.S. House Democratic leader rejected the idea of filling the seat until an investigation of ballot fraud allegations is complete.

Gov. Roy Cooper was met with Republican resistance after announcing he would appoint an interim Board of Elections after a three-judge state court panel ruled Thursday that the current board should disband at noon Friday. The Democrat’s move would fill the gap — and allow the board to proceed with a Jan. 11 evidentiary hearing about the 9th District congressional race — until a new law governing the statewide elections panel can take effect Jan. 31.

Amid the turmoil, incoming U.S. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer issued a statement saying House Democrats won’t allow Republican Mark Harris to be sworn in next week because of the ongoing investigation.

“Given the now well-documented election fraud that took place in NC-09, Democrats would object to any attempt by Mr. Harris to be seated on January 3,” Hoyer said, adding that “the integrity of our democratic process outweighs concerns about the seat being vacant at the start of the new Congress.”

The U.S. Constitution states that the House is the judge of the elections of its members and the final arbiter of contests.

The state Elections Board has refused to certify the race between Harris and Democrat Dan McCready while it investigates absentee ballot irregularities in the district in the south-central part of the state. Harris holds a slim lead in unofficial results, but election officials are looking into criminal allegations against an operative hired by the Harris campaign.

Friday’s standoff was set in motion by the latest ruling from a state court that previously had found the elections board’s makeup unconstitutional after the Republican-controlled legislature altered the board in 2016. The court had ruled earlier this year to allow the board to remain in place until Friday while it investigates the congressional race. The latest ruling came as lawmakers enacted a new law Thursday to largely restore the board to how it operated before 2016.

Cooper started the process of rebuilding the elections board Friday by informing the state Democratic and Republican parties that he plans to create an interim panel with five members of the current elections board, unless he receives different picks from the state parties. The interim board would last until the new law takes effect Jan. 31.

He said he would appoint both Democrats and Republicans to comply with pre-2016 state elections law he says is temporarily back in force.

“All of these members have election law experience and an awareness of the circumstances around the allegations involved in the Ninth Congressional District election,” Cooper said in his letter to state party heads.

But state GOP Chairman Robin Hayes said the dissolving board’s four GOP members “will not accept appointments to an unconstitutional, illegal sham Roy Cooper creation.” Republicans instead will withhold GOP nominees until the new law takes effect, he said.

The outgoing state board refused a last-minute formal request by Harris to certify him the winner.

The elections board reorganization threatens to delay the Jan. 11 hearing. Lawyers for Harris and McCready had a Monday deadline to submit requests to the elections board for people they wanted to have compelled to appear and testify at next month’s hearing. But if the current elections board is disbanded without a new one to replace it, the board chairman or vice chairman who could issue the requested subpoenas wouldn’t exist.

Last week, elections board chairman Josh Malcolm said in an affidavit to the three-judge panel that investigative staffers — who can continue working through any reorganization — had collected more than 182,000 pages of materials in response to 12 subpoenas.

Malcolm said Friday that the elections board issued “numerous additional subpoenas” before disbanding. In a letter to Harris’ attorney, Malcolm wrote that the GOP candidate had turned over only about 400 pages of subpoenaed documents and had yet to produce another 140,000 documents. Harris also had so far failed to arrange a requested interview with agency staffers, Malcolm said.

Harris’ campaign committee has pored through about 135,000 documents that needed review, the Republican’s attorney David Freedman said Friday. Harris “has cooperated and intends to continue cooperating with the investigation,” Freedman said.

If House Democrats refuse to seat Harris, it wouldn’t be the first time a chamber of Congress delayed or rejected seating a new member. In 2009, U.S. Senate leaders initially refused to seat Roland Burris as the replacement for President-elect Barack Obama’s Illinois seat. Burris had been named to succeed Obama by Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who was eventually convicted on corruption charges for trying to sell the Senate appointment.
…

Silicon Valley has enjoyed years of popularity and growing markets.

But 2018 has been rocky for the industry.

Data breaches, controversies over offensive speech and misinformation — as well as reports of foreign operatives’ use of their services — have left many people skeptical about the benefits of social media, experts say.

Worries about social media in Congress meant tech executives had to testify before committees several times this year.

“2018 has been a challenging year for tech companies and consumers alike,” said Pantas Sutardja, chief executive of LatticeWork Inc., a data storage firm. “Company CEOs being called to Congress for hearings and promising profusely to fix the problems of data breach but still cannot do it.”

 

WATCH: Social Media’s Year of Falling From Grace

An apology tour

Facebook drew the most scrutiny. The social networking giant endured criticism after revelations that its lax oversight allowed a political consulting firm to exploit millions of its users’ data.

In the spring, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, went on what was dubbed “an apology tour” to tell users that the company would do a better job of protecting their data.

The California firm faced other problems when data breaches at the site compromised user information. Other sharp criticism hit Facebook when false reports on its site sparked violence in places like Myanmar and Sri Lanka.

​Using social media to sow division

“Are America’s technology companies serving as instruments of freedom?” asked Kevin McCarthy, R-California and the House Majority Leader during a congressional hearing. “Or are they serving as instruments of manipulation used by powerful interests and foreign governments to rob the people of their power, agency, and dignity?”

Adding to concerns, the year saw new revelations of foreign operatives using social media to secretly spread divisive and often bogus messages in the U.S. and worldwide.

“It doesn’t matter to whose benefit they were operating,” said Walt Mossberg, a former tech columnist with the Wall Street Journal. “What bothers people here is that a foreign country, using our social networks, digital products and services that we have come to feel comfortable in … has come in and used that against us.”

​Tech workers stand up

In addition to data privacy and misinformation, online speech became a big issue this year. Under pressure, social media companies like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook’s Instagram tightened restrictions on the kinds of speech they tolerate on their sites.

Tech workers pressed managers about their company’s government contracts, and Google workers staged a worldwide walkout over the treatment of female colleagues.

The issue of user data has led some companies such as LatticeWork, a data storage firm, to create new ways for users to protect their data and themselves. Playing off people’s concerns about data, LatticeWorks markets its products as a way to “bring your data home.”

#DeleteFacebook?

What’s unclear however is whether concerns about personal data and tech company decisions will spur users to leave these services. Facebook revelations prompted some like Mossberg to give up Facebook and its other services such as Instagram. He wants federal law to limit U.S. internet firms collection and use of user data.

“Governments and citizens of countries around the world need the right to regulate them without closing down free speech,” he said. “And that’s tricky.”

Some congressional members have vowed to pass a federal data privacy bill in the coming year, something that tech firms say they support.

But whether new regulations build trust in digital services remains to be seen.
…

A Guatemalan woman is coming clean about a secret she says kept her in a void for five years.

Victorina Morales said in a recent interview with The New York Times that she was employed by the Trump National Golf Club in New Jersey as a housekeeper. Morales says she did so as an undocumented worker and gained employment using false documents.

Morales, 45, says she wasn’t the only person working there illegally and that a manager was aware of their status.

Her revelation, published Dec. 6, comes amid a debate over immigration and border security.

President Donald Trump has said he wants $5 billion to build a wall along the southern U.S. border and that a partial government shutdown will continue until he gets the money from Congress.

WATCH: Guatemalan Woman Discusses Working at Trump Property as Undocumented Worker

Tending to the Trump family

Amid the manicured green hills and the opulent Georgian manor of the New Jersey golf club, Morales tended to the housekeeping needs of members of the first family, including President Trump, his daughter Ivanka and first lady Melania Trump.

Her first day on the job was April 15, 2013, the day after her interview. From fellow housekeeper and confidante Sandra Diaz, a Costa Rican who at the time of her employment was undocumented, Morales picked up the ground rules: no perfume or makeup, special shoes to enter. Among the president’s pet peeves: dust and flies.

“I’ll come back when they’re gone,” Diaz recalled Trump saying once, disgusted by the flies in his clubhouse patio. Flies are common during New Jersey’s humid summer months.

“He gets red hot, angry,” Diaz added.

On the property grounds, Melania was strict, but courteous. Ivanka rarely said hello. But Donald Trump was, for the most part, thoughtful toward workers who met his expectations, the two women attest. He kept $100, $50 and $20 bills in his nightstand, according to Diaz, lining his pockets daily to tip those worthy of his praise, which included Morales and Diaz.

The problem was not the president, Morales thought, at least not initially.

“I just met a good blond man,” she told Diaz. “I would tell people, this man is so good. He gives us tips. He never looks down upon us.”

Abuse allegations

In 1999, Morales endured dehydration and hunger in the Texas desert, at one point covered in ants while lying flat to hide from “la migra,” U.S. Border Patrol officers. Fourteen years later, on Trump’s property for the first time, Morales looked to heaven.

“Beautiful God,” she said, “You have opened these doors for me.”

What Morales didn’t realize at the time was the length one supervisor would go to make her and other undocumented workers feel inferior.

The supervisor initially reassured her, “We take good papers and bad papers,” a contradiction of Trump’s insistence, three years later on the campaign trail, that his company “didn’t have one illegal immigrant on the job.”

The then-presidential candidate’s on-air comments baffled his employees. As foreign-born workers, they took offense to Trump’s 2015 attack on undocumented Mexican immigrants: “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

“Is it that he’s crazy? Why this attitude toward us?” Morales said she wondered privately at her home in nearby Bound Brook, New Jersey.

“We began to speak amongst ourselves,” said Diaz, who had left the Trump property for another job. “But everyone stayed quiet, because everyone had their own interests.”

WATCH: Guatemalan Woman Talks About Her Treatment at Trump Property

According to Morales, it was then that her supervisor, emboldened by the president, became more aggressive. It was those actions that have led Morales and Diaz to consider a civil lawsuit against the Trump Organization, alleging workplace abuse and discrimination.

“She told us we were donkeys … that her dog understood more English than us,” Morales told VOA.

On multiple occasions, Morales alleges the supervisor shoved her while inside the laundry room, once nearly causing Morales to hit her forehead on the corner of a washing machine.

“Vicky called me, crying,” said Diaz, after one such incident. “[Her supervisor] told her that if she tried to leave the institution or complained about it … migration [immigration authorities] could show up at her door.”

VOA reached out to both the Trump Organization and the White House for comment, but multiple requests went unanswered.

“Supervisors felt that they had the protection of the commander-in-chief,” said attorney Anibal Romero, who is representing both Morales and Diaz. “This is something we see a lot today, where employers are using immigration as an excuse [to justify their actions].”

Morales decided she had had enough. Introduced through Diaz, Romero studied Morales’ case and asked if she was willing to go on record.

“Yes,” she told him. “I’m not afraid. I’ve lost my fear since I was little.”

Life of resilience

When she was 7 years old, Morales says she begged her father’s killer to stop, as the assailant kicked and stabbed him outside their home. She jumped on the man. The man slapped her and forced her head against the ground.

“Do what you want with me, but do not touch my daughter, please!” a tearful Morales recalled her father pleading with his killer.

Decades later, long after reuniting with her husband in the United States, Morales learned that her father-in-law had been hacked to death with a machete by killers who knew that family in the U.S. had sent him money, which he’d spent to buy a tractor.

When her eldest son and brother-in-law were threatened, Morales and her husband scrambled to bring them to the United States.

​Looking ahead

Through her lawyer, Morales recently applied for asylum for her and her family, an option she says she didn’t know existed before. The process is ongoing, but Morales has faith everything will work out.

She has not returned to the golf course and recently lost an off-the-books night job cleaning offices after The New York Times story revealed her undocumented status. Supported by her husband, who mows lawns during the day and holds a second job at night to afford their $1,800 monthly rent and living expenses, Morales said she has no regrets.

Morales removed her Facebook account before their story went public, as she and Diaz expected a swarm of disparaging comments from anonymous anti-immigrant readers. And they got them.

“She certainly knows how to milk the system,” said one Times reader from Fairfax, Virginia.

“They are here due to failed policies, poor border enforcement, and Democratic opposition to any action against illegal immigrants,” wrote another reader from Texas.

In the initial New York Times report by Miriam Jordan, Diaz and Morales claimed they were not the only undocumented workers on Trump’s property, and several more women have since come forward, according to attorney Romero. Although it’s hardly the strength in numbers Diaz and Morales hoped for, the two said they have no regrets.

“I cannot turn around, like many people do, and not give a hand to someone like Vicky, who needs to have her story heard,” Diaz said, defending her decision to come forward.

“This role we have taken on is to show that there are brave women,” Morales added.

​Willing to listen

There is a saying in Guatemala that Morales adopted when she was young: La sonrisa en la cara y el luto en el corazón. “A smile on the face and mourning in the heart.”

Morales is one of roughly 7.8 million undocumented immigrants ages 18 and older who work in the U.S., in many cases holding jobs that “people who have papers don’t want,” Diaz said.

“Not just anyone can handle the pressure, the speed, and the treatment,” she added.

“[Trump] has always used us,” she added, acknowledging there is no way of knowing whether the president or first lady ever knew of their undocumented status. Still, she maintains, “He used us to get to power.”

Morales said her faith in God has given her strength.

“I don’t speak for just myself, I speak for all my fellow immigrants,” Morales said. “Let’s stop hiding. There are people willing to listen.”
…

President Donald Trump fleshed out his “America First” political doctrine in 2018 with policies aimed at shaking up institutions of the post-World War II world order. VOA’s diplomatic correspondent Cindy Saine takes a look on how U.S. foreign policy is shifting under Trump.
…

As the partial shutdown of the U.S. federal government stretched into its sixth day with no end in sight, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is offering advice on how to deal with an interrupted cash flow.

Nearly 800,000 federal employees have either been furloughed or will be working without pay and facing potential problems paying bills and meeting other expenses.

“Feds, here are sample letters you may use as a guide when working with your creditors during this furlough,” the agency said in a tweet Thursday, directing the reader to its website. 

OPM suggested workers call their landlord, mortgage company, or creditor to speak with them about their situation. It said the call should then be followed up with a letter and offered samples of how it should be worded.

“I am a Federal employee who has recently been furloughed due to a lack of funding of my agency. Because of this, my income has been severely cut and I am unable to pay the entire cost of my monthly payments, along with my other expenses,” reads one sample letter that OPM released.

The website made it clear that if furloughed workers need legal help, they are on their own. “If you need legal advice to assist you in any response to creditors, landlords or the like, consult with your personal attorney or contact your state or county bar association, many of which maintain lawyer referral services,” it said.

With most lawmakers away from Washington for the holidays, the shutdown will likely stretch into the new year.

President Donald Trump has vowed to keep the government closed until he gets $5 billion to fund his border wall.

According to the American Federation of Government Employees, a union that represents federal employees, about 420,000 federal employees are working without pay, while 380,000 others have been told to stay home.
…

The U.S. government is all but assured to remain partially closed into the new year as neither house of Congress plans to conduct any business for the remainder of 2018.

With a lapse in federal funding nearing the one-week mark, a standoff remains between President Donald Trump, who is demanding Congress approve billions of dollars for wall construction along the U.S.-Mexico border, and Democratic lawmakers, who back a modest increase in overall border security funding but resolutely oppose a wall.

On Thursday, the House and Senate gaveled in for sessions lasting only minutes, with no mention of the work stoppage or any possible resolution. Both are scheduled to hold pro forma sessions with no business conducted Dec. 31.

Tweeting earlier in the day, Trump asserted that “Border Patrol Agents want the wall” and touted a “Need to stop Drugs, Human Trafficking, Gang Members & Criminals from coming into our country.”

When asked Wednesday how long he thinks the shutdown will last, Trump told reporters, “Whatever it takes.”

He declined to comment on whether he might back away from the $5 billion wall funding demand.

‘Chaos’

Democrats, meanwhile, blamed Trump for “plunging the country into chaos” and noted that, weeks ago, Trump said he would be “proud” to “own” a shutdown over border wall funding.

In a joint statement, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and presumed incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California said, “The president wanted the shutdown, but seems not to know how to get himself out of it.”

Any formula to fully fund the U.S. government will have to be approved by both houses of Congress and signed by Trump. Many lawmakers went home this week for the Christmas holiday and have no plans to return before early January.

Last week, the Senate unanimously approved a spending bill with no funds set aside to build a wall. The House declined to vote on it, instead passing its own spending bill with the wall funding Trump seeks. That bill is a non-starter for Senate Democrats, who can block such legislation.

Shift in House

Republicans currently control both houses of Congress and the White House, but in one week, Democrats will take over in the House while Republicans will add two seats to their current Senate advantage.

Once sworn in next week, the new House Democratic majority will be able to pass any spending bill it chooses. It remains to be seen, however, how Senate Republicans will react to a House bill that lacks wall funding.

The shutdown is affecting about 800,000 federal workers. About half of them are still going to work while the rest are furloughed. None will be paid until the shutdown is over.

In his morning prayer, Senate Chaplain Barry Black appeared to reference the funding standoff and request divine intervention.

“Stay close to our lawmakers,” the chaplain said.  “Deliver them from the mire of division and despair as you lead them to your desired destination.”
…

Sen. Dianne Feinstein called Thursday for the Senate Judiciary Committee to hold a hearing early next year regarding the deaths of two children in Customs and Border Protection (CBP) custody. 

 

In a letter to Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Feinstein, D-Calif., requested a hearing “on the care and treatment of children in the custody of Customs and Border Protection.” Graham is set to chair the committee in the new year.  

Feinstein, the highest-ranking member of her party on the committee, called the deaths of the two children “heartbreaking incidents” and said the Judiciary Committee was “uniquely situated to examine these issues.” 

Earlier this month, the Department of Homeland Security reported that Jakelin Caal Maquin, 7, from Guatemala had died hours after being taken into Border Patrol protection. This week, the agency said that a Guatemalan boy, Felipe Alonzo-Gomez, 8, had died late Christmas Eve in CPB custody. 

In the letter, Feinstein called on CBP to ensure that children are released from detention within 72 hours as required by law. She also demanded the agency account for the need to communicate with detainees in their native languages and develop standards of care in consultation with pediatricians and child welfare experts. 

 

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen on Wednesday said all children in Border Patrol custody had received medical screenings and that she had directed additional actions to care for those who enter U.S. custody. 

 

On Thursday, DHS announced that Nielsen would travel Friday to El Paso, Texas, and Saturday to Yuma, Ariz. 
…

Thursday is the sixth day of a partial U.S. government shutdown, and it is unlikely to be the day that brings a resolution in the standoff between President Donald Trump and Congress.

Trump has insisted on getting $5 billion in funding for a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border, while Democrats have objected and instead said they would agree to $1.3 billion in other border security spending.

When asked Wednesday how long he thinks the shutdown will last, Trump told reporters, “Whatever it takes.”

“I mean, we’re going to have a wall. We’re going to have safety.”

He declined to comment about the prospect of backing away from his demand for $5 billion in wall funding and instead accepting the lower figure for border security.

Democratic leaders in Congress have blamed Trump for “plunging the country into chaos.”

“The president wanted the shutdown, but seems not to know how to get himself out of it,” Senator Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and incoming House speaker Nancy Pelosi wrote in a joint statement.”

Whatever the solution the two sides eventually find to fund about one-quarter of the government it will have to be approved by both houses of Congress and signed by Trump.

​No votes Thursday

Republican leaders in the House of Representatives told members not to expect any votes Thursday, and that they would be given 24 hours’ notice before any votes take place. Many lawmakers went home this week for the Christmas holiday.

In the Senate, the chamber’s calendar says it will reconvene Thursday for discussion of the spending issue, but how many members will be present remains to be seen.

Perhaps further complicating the ongoing discussions is that currently Republicans hold majorities in both the House and Senate, but in one week Democrats will take over in the House while Republicans will add a few seats to their Senate advantage.

​800,000 workers affected

The shutdown is affecting about 800,000 federal workers. About half of them are going to work but will not be paid until the shutdown is over. The rest are at home waiting to find out if Congress will follow what it has done in the past and approve pay for them as well.

Trump said Monday he has the backing of federal workers and that they want him to stick to his demand for the wall funding.

The American Federation of Government Employees, the largest union of U.S. federal workers, rejected that statement Wednesday.

“They are eager to get back to work. They unequivocally oppose using shutdowns as a means of resolving policy disputes,” AFGE National President J. David Cox Sr. said. “This is not about a wall, this is about 800,000 real people with real families and real bills to pay.”

AFGE membership includes some Voice of America employees.

White House Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Kevin Hassett said the shutdown is merely a temporary problem for affected federal employees.

“They might miss a pay period because the government shut down,” Hassett told reporters Wednesday. “But in the end, even if they aren’t working, then Congress has decided to pay people for the whole time. So in the end, it’s really just a sort of short-term problem not a long-term problem for government workers.”
…

The current lapse in funding for portions of the U.S. government could be a harbinger of congressional gridlock and dysfunction next year, when Democrats will control the House of Representatives while Republicans continue their control of the Senate.

With a partial federal shutdown nearing the one-week mark, a spending package has yet to emerge that could pass both houses of Congress and receive President Donald Trump’s signature. Funding for wall construction along the U.S.-Mexico border remains a sticking point.

The standoff comes during the waning days of unified Republican control of the elective branches of government. Congress will see divided political control beginning Jan. 3, when the new Democratic majority in the House is sworn in.

“The incentive for either party to cooperate across the aisle [bipartisanship] will be a little bit lower because both parties will be looking increasingly to blame the other side for not getting things done,” said political analyst Molly Reynolds of the Washington-based Brookings Institution.

Reynolds added that there are “some possible prospects for bipartisanship on things like [improving America’s] infrastructure or [reducing the price of] prescription drugs, but by and large we’ll see relatively little legislative progress in 2019.”

The year 2010 saw the mirror image of the 2018 midterm election results. In 2010, Republicans won control of the House of Representatives and used it as a check on then-president Barack Obama, a Democrat, as well as what was then a Democratically led Senate. Legislative gridlock and a series of partial U.S. government shutdowns ensued beginning in 2011.

“Just as in 2011 and 2012, [in 2019] we’re going to see almost no progress on the major issues facing the country, with one possible exception, infrastructure, where the interests of House Democrats and the president may come together,” American Enterprise Institute resident scholar Norman Ornstein said.

‘A judge factory’

Beginning in January, Democrats will be able to use their House majority to block any legislation to which they object. But in one critical area, judicial nominees, Republicans will have a stronger hand to confirm Trump’s picks for lifetime appointments to the federal bench and make the judiciary far more ideologically conservative for years, perhaps decades, to come.

Republicans will hold 53 of 100 Senate seats, up from the 51 they currently control.

“While most things the Senate does need to get 60 votes to overcome a filibuster, nominations only need 51 votes,” Reynolds explained.

“The Senate has become a judge factory,” Ornstein said. “[Republican Majority Leader Mitch] McConnell is bringing up a substantial number of judges. With 53 [Republican senators], you can withstand one, two or even three defections [Republican ‘no’ votes], and still get it done. So for McConnell, this is a substantial amount of breathing room.”

Oversight, investigations

House Democrats, meanwhile, have signaled their intention to scrutinize and investigate the Trump White House and the administration as a whole.

“I expect Democrats to spend most of their time on oversight and engaging in a wide range of investigations, some of which will target President Trump personally as well as the conduct of the executive branch over the last two years,” Reynolds said.

The November 2020 presidential election could increasingly set the parameters of what a divided Congress can tackle as 2019 progresses. Some things, like an overhaul of U.S. immigration laws, could be out of reach.

“We’re about to enter the 2020 presidential campaign [cycle], and that will affect how Congress spends its time, what issues it’s active on. I don’t want to dismiss the possibility of immigration reform in the next two years outright, but I do think it will be an uphill battle for Congress,” Reynolds said.

“We have a divided country, we’ll have divided government,” John Fortier of the Bipartisan Policy Center said. “There are a few opportunities [for bipartisanship]. The trick in divided government is not to think that we’re going to do everything together, but to find some discreet larger initiatives that both sides might find some interest in.”

Changes in party control of one or both houses of Congress occurred in 2007, 2011 and 2015, and will occur again in 2019. Throughout it all, Congress has suffered low approval ratings from the American people, a situation that is unlikely to improve anytime soon.

“We’re going to have sharper partisan edges in the body, a lot of partisan and ideological combat, tribal combat, in the coming years,” Ornstein said. “It’s hard for me to imagine that Americans are going to feel better about things.”

Reynolds agreed. “Gridlock is likely to keep most Americans not terribly happy with how Washington works,” she said.
…

President Donald Trump made an unannounced trip to Iraq Wednesday to visit U.S. troops stationed there.

Trump and first lady Melania Trump landed at al-Asad air base in western Iraq at 7:16 p.m. local time.

They left Washington late Christmas night, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a tweet Wednesday afternoon.

This is Trump’s first visit to a conflict zone as president. The trip was undertaken in near secrecy.

Syria withdrawal

In speaking to the troops, Trump defended his decision to withdraw from Syria, saying that Islamic State (IS) is “very nearly defeated” and the caliphate is gone.

“I made it clear from the beginning that our mission in Syria was to strip ISIS of its military strongholds,” Trump said, using an acronym for the militant group.

“Eight years ago, we went there for three months and we never left,” he said, adding the U.S presence in Syria was never meant to be “open-ended.”

Trump said Turkey has agreed to eliminate any IS “remnants” in the region.

“The nations of the region must step up and take more responsibility for their future,” Trump said, adding there would be an “orderly withdrawal” of the roughly 2,000 U.S. forces in Syria.

​Greeting the troops

The president and first lady greeted troops in a dining hall, taking photos and signing autographs as part of the visit. They left three hours later.

On the return to Washington, Air Force One stopped briefly at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany, where Trump met with several U.S. Air Force leaders, and he and the first lady took photos with U.S. service members there.

Trump did not meet with any Iraqi officials during his short visit to the country, but he did speak on the phone with Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi.

Trump’s visit to Iraq came a day after he held a video conference from the Oval Office with military members around the globe. After the call, he was criticized by some media outlets that reported he is first president since 2002 to not visit U.S. troops at Christmastime.

 

WATCH: Trump Visits US Troops in Iraq on Unannounced Trip

Presidential visits

Visiting U.S. troops in conflict zones is a tradition embraced by U.S. presidents because it is seen as a morale-booster for troops.

President George W. Bush visited U.S. troops stationed overseas eight times during his presidency, including serving a Thanksgiving meal to soldiers in Baghdad in 2003. President Barak Obama visited troops in Baghdad in April 2009, four months after he took office. He also visited troops in Afghanistan and South Korea.

The Pentagon said there are about 5,200 U.S. forces in Iraq.

In Washington, a partial shutdown has closed a quarter of the U.S. government after Congress failed to fund Trump’s proposed wall on the southern border with Mexico.

Last week, Trump made the controversial move of announcing plans to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria. He also is considering withdrawing roughly half of the more than 14,000 American troops stationed in Afghanistan, beginning next month.

Trump’s senior advisers and military officials have warned the move will plunge the region further into chaos.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and the special presidential envoy for the global coalition to counter IS, Brett McGurk, have both resigned, at least in part in disagreement over policy in Syria and Afghanistan.
…

The partial shutdown of the U.S. government entered its fifth day Wednesday, with no public indication a resolution is imminent.

President Donald Trump spoke about the shutdown Tuesday, asserting that it will continue until his demand for funds to construct a U.S.-Mexico border wall are met.

“I can’t tell you when the government is going to be open. I can tell you it’s not going to be open until we have a wall, a fence, whatever they’d like to call it,” Trump said in the Oval Office after a video conference with U.S. troops, who are stationed overseas.

Trump claimed the hundreds of thousands of federal workers who are furloughed due to the shutdown also want the wall, despite a lack of evidence supporting the contention.

On Monday, Trump asserted Democrats “must end” the standoff while Democratic leaders in Congress blamed Trump for “plunging the country into chaos.”

“The president wanted the shutdown, but seems not to know how to get himself out of it,” Senator Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and incoming House speaker Nancy Pelosi wrote in a joint statement. ”

While government agencies dealing with national security and public safety remain open, other offices are closed and 800,000 federal workers are on furlough. Those who are considered to be essential employees are reporting for duty, but will not get a paycheck for that work until the shutdown is over.

Trump has demanded $5 billion for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Democrats have offered $1.3 billion for other border security measures.

The president canceled his Christmas vacation to his Florida resort because of the impasse with Congress.

“I am all alone (poor me) in the White House waiting for the Democrats to come back and make a deal on desperately needed Border Security,” he tweeted Monday. “At some point, the Democrats not wanting to make a deal will cost our Country more than the Border Wall we are all talking about. Crazy.”

 
…

The year 2018 proved to be one of change in U.S. politics.  Opposition Democrats won back control of the House of Representatives in the November midterm elections, and that could have a profound impact on the next two years of Donald Trump’s presidency.

A preview of what the year ahead could look like came in the December 11 Oval Office meeting between President Trump and Democratic congressional leaders Representative Nancy Pelosi and Senator Chuck Schumer.

The verbal jousting over the president’s demand for a border wall with Mexico is likely the first of many partisan showdowns ahead given that Democrats will hold the majority in the House beginning in early January.

“Democrats will certainly use their majority to highlight some differences with Donald Trump and to investigate the Trump administration,” said John Fortier of the Bipartisan Policy Center, a recent guest on VOA’s “Encounter” program. “And then we will be spending this year leading into the presidential election of 2020, so it is a transition year.”

Investigations ahead

 

Democrats fueled their midterm victory with opposition to President Donald Trump spurred by a strong turnout from women and progressive voters on behalf of candidates like Massachusetts Democrat Ayanna Pressley.

“We have affirmed that while this could go down as the darkest time in our history, we will not let it be. And instead, we will be defined by our hopes, not our fears,” Pressley told supporters on election night.

Democrats picked up 40 House seats but Republicans bolstered their majority in the Senate and will hold a 53-to-47-seat edge in January.

Even though Trump now faces the prospect of a stalled legislative agenda and numerous oversight investigations launched by House Democrats, he remains defiant.

“Almost from the time I announced I was going to run, they have been giving us this investigation fatigue. It has been a long time,” the president told a White House news conference shortly after the election. “They have got nothing. Zero. You know why? Because there is nothing. But they can play that game but we can play it better.”

Deal or no deal?

But Democratic control of the House will force the president to adjust to a new political reality, according to University of Virginia expert Larry Sabato.

“Trump has faced relatively few problems in dealing with Congress [in his first two years] at least compared to other presidents who were dealing with one or both branches being controlled by the opposition party,” Sabato told Associated Press Television.

Trump can boast of his tax cut passed by a Republican Congress and his two Supreme Court appointments approved by the Republican-controlled Senate.

But next year, without full Republican control of Congress, and with an eye on an approaching re-election campaign, Trump could be more interested in cutting some deals with Democrats.

Jim Kessler is with the center-left policy group Third Way.

“At this point we have not seen Donald Trump really have the ability to work with Democrats to cut any sort of deal in the first two years,” Kessler told VOA. “So, Mr. ‘Art of the Deal’ has really fallen short and we will see if that is possible this time.”

Russia probe looms

Also looming on the horizon for the Trump White House in 2019, though, is the Russia investigation, which could move toward a conclusion in the coming months.

“This is a watershed year coming up for President Trump,” said Tom DeFrank of the National Journal, who has covered Washington politics for 40 years. “I mean, he [Trump] is going to have to confront whatever it is that Robert Mueller says about him or alleges, and I think it is going to be a difficult year for him.”

Trump will be increasingly focused on the next presidential election, but so will scores of Democrats who hope to defeat him in 2020, said University of Virginia analyst Guian McKee.

“You know, I think the reality is that the 2020 campaign has begun. That is probably unfortunate, but that shapes everything going forward,” said McKee.

Given the political reset between Congress and the White House and the uncertainty of what the Russia investigation will find, what happens in 2019 could go a long way to determining whether Donald Trump is a one-term or two-term president.
…

The year 2018 proved to be one of change in U.S. politics. Opposition Democrats won back control of the House of Representatives in the November midterm elections, and that could have a profound impact on the next two years of Donald Trump’s presidency. VOA National Correspondent Jim Malone has more from Washington.
…

The partial shutdown of the U.S. government has moved no closer to a resolution, with President Donald Trump asserting on Tuesday the shutdown will continue until his demand for funds to construct a U.S.-Mexico border wall are met.

“I can’t tell you when the government is going to be open. I can tell you it’s not going to be open until we have a wall, a fence, whatever they’d like to call it,” Trump said in the Oval Office after a video conference with U.S. troops, who are stationed overseas.

Trump claimed the hundreds of thousands of federal workers who are furloughed due to the shutdown also want the wall, despite a lack of evidence supporting the contention.

On Monday, Trump asserted Democrats “must end” the standoff while Democratic leaders in Congress blamed Trump for “plunging the country into chaos.”

The two sides traded their accusations ahead of Christmas, the fourth day in which parts of the government are closed because Congress and Trump have not been able to agree on necessary spending legislation.

While government agencies dealing with national security and public safety remain open, other offices are closed and 800,000 federal workers are on furlough. Those who are considered to be essential employees are reporting for duty, but will not get a paycheck for that work until the shutdown is over.

“The president wanted the shutdown, but seems not to know how to get himself out of it,” Senator Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and incoming House speaker Nancy Pelosi wrote in a joint statement.

“The stock market is tanking and the president is waging a personal war on the Federal Reserve after he just fired the secretary of defense,” they said.

Trump has demanded $5 billion for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Democrats have offered $1.3 billion for other border security measures. 

The president canceled his Christmas vacation to his Florida resort because of the impasse with Congress.

“I am all alone (poor me) in the White House waiting for the Democrats to come back and make a deal on desperately needed Border Security,” he tweeted Monday. “At some point, the Democrats not wanting to make a deal will cost our Country more than the Border Wall we are all talking about. Crazy.”

Another Trump tweet claimed “virtually every Democrat” strongly supported a “Border Wall or Fence” but turned against the idea after he made it an important part of his campaign for president.

Most Republican lawmakers, meanwhile, have rallied around Trump’s demand.

“One would think that securing our homeland, controlling our borders and protecting the American people, would be bipartisan priorities…a core duty of any nation’s government,” Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said.

In the past, Democrats have been open to approving additional border security funding, including money for a wall, as part of a larger deal on immigration reform.

Earlier this year, Democrats were willing to support wall funding in return for protections for so-called “Dreamers” — immigrants brought to America illegally as children – a deal Trump initially hailed but later abandoned. 

Democrats say Trump was willing to sign a deal to keep the government operating without the full $5 billion, but backed out after those Schumer calls and “right-wing radio and TV talk show hosts” complained.

“Different people from the same White House are saying different things about what the president would accept or not accept…making it impossible to know where they stand at any given moment,” Schumer and Pelosi said.

What is certain, though, is the government will remain closed at least through Thursday and, according to acting Chief of Staff Nick Mulvaney, quite possibly into 2019.
…

As the first two years of President Donald Trump’s administration close, Republican allies still haven’t figured out how best to influence a leader who takes cues from the forces that swept him to office and seems to fear losing them above all else.

Republicans on Capitol Hill and even the president’s closest advisers have been whipsawed over a series of recent actions that show how intently Trump relies on what is sometimes called his gut — an adherence to campaign promises he made that are being reinforced by a constellation of election gurus, Fox News personalities and others who hold sway like few others.

 

“I know he can be a handful, but he is the president,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told The Associated Press.

 

On the domestic front, no sooner had Trump signaled he might be backing off his demand for $5 billion to build a border wall with Mexico — easing away from a partial government shutdown — than he took a U-turn after being scolded by conservative allies and pundits, who accused him of wavering on a campaign promise. Now, three days into the shutdown, his budget chief says it could drag into the New Year.

 

On issues abroad, Trump acted against the advice of his national security advisers and issued a surprise decision to pull troops from Syria. That prompted Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to step down and Trump’s special envoy to the coalition fighting Islamic State militants, Brett McGurk, to resign. A drawdown of troops in Afghanistan also appeared to be in the works.

 

As the stock market tumbled on Christmas Eve, Trump lashed out at the Federal Reserve sowing more uncertainty over his public criticism of chairman Jerome Powell.

 

Now, as Republicans prepare to relinquish their hold on government, with Democrats taking control of the House in January, the opportunities — and limits — of the GOP alliance with the Trump White House may be running their course.

 

“I am all alone [poor me] in the White House waiting for the Democrats to come back and make a deal,” the president tweeted.

 

Over and again, Trump has shown himself to be more of a tactical, than strategic, thinker, acting to avoid short-term pain rather than seeking long-term gain.

When Congress was about to keep the government running without a fight over border wall money, Trump felt the outcry from his base and intervened.

 

Trump told House Speaker Paul Ryan and other Republican leaders at the White House he wouldn’t sign a Senate-passed compromise bill, which would have kept border security money at $1.3 billion, not the $5 billion he wanted for the wall with Mexico.

 

The House and Senate gaveled in for a brief Christmas Eve session Monday only to close up quickly for the holidays.

 

“Trump is plunging the country into chaos,” the Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer said in a joint statement. “Instead of bringing certainty into people’s lives, he’s continuing the Trump Shutdown just to please right-wing radio and TV hosts.”

 

Trump’s sudden moves on Syria left top Republicans on Capitol Hill criticizing his decision to pull out all of the roughly 2,000 U.S. troops. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., signed on to a letter with other GOP senators urging Trump to reconsider.

 

Graham used a weekend luncheon with conservative lawmakers at the White House to impress on the president the rightness of his instinct on both the border wall and the troop withdrawal in Syria, while also sharing with Trump some ideas for smoothing the policy around both issues.

 

“I told the president, I’m not arguing with your general philosophy,” Graham said. “He’s a good listener.”

 

Graham reminded Trump that while shoring up the border wall is important, “a Southern wall isn’t going to protect you against ISIS.”

 

It’s unclear if Trump was listening. The Pentagon said Monday that Mattis has already signed the order to withdraw U.S. forces from Syria.

 

And Mattis, who was also unhappy with Trump’s order to develop plans to pull out half of the 14,000 troops in Afghanistan, was being pushed out two months early. Irritated by a surge of criticism over his decision, Trump said Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan will take over as acting secretary on Jan. 1.

 

Trump’s allies chock up the president’s year-end moves to a wager that the intense support from his base of voters will continue to propel his electoral chances in 2020 — even if polling suggests otherwise.

 

An analysis of VoteCast, a nationwide poll of more than 115,000 midterm voters conducted for The Associated Press by NORC at the University of Chicago, highlights the fractures.

 

A small, but significant slice of voters — the 18 percent who described themselves as only “somewhat” approving of the president — expressed concerns.

 

Compared with the 27 percent of voters who describe themselves as strong Trump supporters, the “somewhat” Trump voters are much more likely to disapprove of Trump on key issues and have reservations about his personality.

 

In a warning signs for Republicans, who just lost their House majority in the November election, those voters are more likely to have voted for Democrats in 2018. They are more educated, somewhat more likely to be women, and more likely to live in suburbs.

 

The president has been busy on the phone to allies on Capitol Hill, talking late into the night with some.

 

Trump seemed “exuberant” at the luncheon, said one Republican, Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, who was the only member of the GOP leadership to attend.

 

Ryan, who is retiring, and McConnell have become almost side actors to the year-end shutdown they both tried to avoid, but now will partly own. Both offices said it was up to Trump and Democrats to cut a deal.

 

Shelby said that at lunch Trump did seem like he wanted to reach a deal. At the same time, it’s not always clear whether any of the hours of conversation result in decisions that drift too far from Trump’s own instinct to stay close to his base.

 

“I don’t think it’s imminent we’re going to reach a deal,” Shelby said. “I wish we could.”

 
…