TRUMP AGENDA: Judge orders Trump to revive DACA program
The big news overnight, via NBCNews.com: “A federal judge on Tuesday night ordered the Trump administration to revive part of the program that protected children illegally brought to the United States by their parents from being deported, calling the administration's abrupt decision to end the program last year ‘arbitrary’ and ‘capricious.’”
More, in the Washington Post: “The judge did not rule on the merits of the case but said the plaintiffs would suffer irreparable harm if the Trump administration ended DACA before the legal dispute is resolved…. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra brought the lawsuit together with the attorneys general for Maine, Maryland and Minnesota, as well as the University of California, DACA recipients and others. The plaintiffs said the Trump administration failed to follow the law in rescinding DACA and would cause irreparable harm by forcing immigrants to leave jobs, drop out of school and potentially be deported.”
Leigh Ann Caldwell reports on yesterday’s bipartisan immigration negotiations.
“After days in which his very fitness for office was debated, Mr. Trump appeared intent on demonstrating that he could handle the presidency. He was in command of the meeting while inviting input. He did not berate anyone. He did not call anyone derogatory nicknames. He signaled that he was open to compromise,” the New York Times writes of the unusually public negotiations.
Bannon is out at Breitbart. Here’s Jonathan Allen’s take on the strategist’s rise and fall.
From NBC’s Mike Memoli: “One year after U.S. intelligence agencies detailed the scale and scope of Russian efforts to undermine the 2016 presidential elections, the United States still lacks “a coherent, comprehensive and coordinated approach” to countering potential future threats from the Kremlin or elsewhere, a new Democratic congressional report finds.”
And from Memoli and Ken Dilanian, on the Fusion GPS testimony released by Dianne Feinstein yesterday: “By the time the FBI sat down in September 2016 for a full interview with the ex-British spy who had been researching Donald Trump’s Russia connections, the bureau had already received information raising concerns about possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, according to a transcript made public Tuesday.”
“President Trump’s longtime lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, filed a defamation lawsuit on Tuesday in federal court against Fusion GPS, the firm behind a salacious and largely unsubstantiated dossier that purported to lay out how Russia had aided the Trump campaign. The dossier portrayed Mr. Cohen as a central figure in what it described as a conspiracy,” the New York Times reports. “The dossier was first published by BuzzFeed last year, and Mr. Cohen also filed a separate suit against BuzzFeed in a New York state court.”
The Trump administration now says its offshore drilling plan won’t apply to Florida, where Republican Gov. Rick Scott had opposed it.
POLITICO previews Trump’s upcoming trip to Davos: “The annual gathering of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, will be choking with the kind of people who disdain Donald Trump and genuinely regard his presidency as a menace to the planet. In other words: exactly the kind of party Trump loves to crash.”
OFF TO THE RACES: Arpaio is running for Senate
Don’t miss this, in North Carolina: “Federal judges now agree that North Carolina's congressional district map drawn by Republicans is illegally gerrymandered, excessively partisan, and must quickly be redone. The three judges ruled late Tuesday that the boundaries violate the U.S. Constitution because they were designed to benefit Republican candidates at the expense of non-Republican voters. Republican mapmakers made clear in 2016 that they wanted to retain the GOP's 10-3 seat advantage in the congressional delegation.”
AZ-SEN: Joe Arpaio says he’s running for Senate. How real is the 85 year-old’s bid? The Arizona Republic takes a look at the reaction to his announcement.
Arpaio told NBC News of his campaign “I’m bulletproof.”
FL-SEN: POLITICO notes how Trump’s move to exempt Florida from an offshore drilling push is a gift to Rick Scott’s Senate bid.
MA-GOV: Charlie Baker is still really, really popular, according to a new poll from WBUR.
MI-SEN: Republican Sandy Pensler says he’ll spend $5 million of his own money on his Senate campaign, POLITICO reports.
NJ-GOV: Chris Christie delivered a final State of the State address, which the New York Times described as “boastful and reminiscent.”
UT-SEN: In the Washington Post: “Mitt Romney’s comeback on the national stage, through the byway of his probable bid for the Senate in Utah, has prompted a sharp debate among Republicans over whether traditional political figures are still welcome as leaders of a party dominated by President Trump.”