Senate leaders were scrambling to save a bipartisan spending deal and avert a partial government shutdown at midnight Friday. Democrats have demanded new restrictions on federal immigration raids across the country.
Democrats struck a rare deal with President Donald Trump Thursday to separate funding for the Homeland Security Department from a broad government spending bill and fund it for two weeks while Congress debates curbs on the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
The deal came as irate Democrats had vowed to vote against the entire spending bill and trigger a shutdown in the wake of the deaths of two protesters at the hands of federal agents in Minneapolis.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said late Thursday there were “snags on both sides” as he and Democratic leader Chuck Schumer tried to work through any objections that could delay passage past the Friday deadline.
The latest:
FBI now heading investigation into Pretti killing
The Department of Homeland Security says that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is now heading the investigation into the shooting death of Alex Pretti.
The Department said earlier this week that Homeland Security Investigations, which is a unit within the department, would be heading the investigation.
But Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said during an interview with Fox News on Thursday that the FBI was in the lead. Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department said Friday in an email that HSI will support them.
Separately, Customs and Border Protection is doing its own internal investigation.
Homeland Security did not immediately respond to questions about when the change was made or why.
House Democratic Leader said Don Lemon must be freed immediately
“Don Lemon is an accomplished journalist whose urgent work is protected by the First Amendment,” said Rep. Hakeem Jeffries on social media.
“There is zero basis to arrest him. He should be freed immediately.”
He said “The Trump Justice Department is illegitimate. They will all be held accountable for their crimes against the Constitution.”
Tillis to oppose Trump’s Fed chair pick if Powell inquiry isn’t resolved
The retiring North Carolina senator has been among a group of Senate Republicans who have rushed to the defense of current Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell after it was revealed earlier this month that the Justice Department had opened an inquiry into him.
After Trump said Friday that he would nominate former Federal Reserve official Kevin Warsh to serve as the next chair of the Fed, Tillis made clear the inquiry would stand in the way of any confirmation.
“I will oppose the confirmation of any Federal Reserve nominee, including for the position of Chairman, until the DOJ’s inquiry into Chairman Powell is fully and transparently resolved,” Tillis wrote.
Tillis, a swing vote on the Senate Banking Committee, which oversees the Federal Reserve and approves central bank nominees, said in his post that Warsh is a “qualified nominee,” but stressed that “protecting the independence of the Federal Reserve from political interference or legal intimidation is non-negotiable.”
Tillis’s opposition could complicate the confirmation process for Warsh and Senate GOP leaders. Asked late Thursday whether Warsh could be confirmed without Tillis’s support, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said, “probably not.”
Journalist Don Lemon arrested following church protest
Journalist Don Lemon has been arrested after he entered a Minnesota church and recorded anti-immigration enforcement protesters who disrupted a service in an incident that increased tensions between residents and the Trump administration, his lawyer said Friday.
It was not immediately clear what charge or charges Lemon was facing in the Jan. 18 protest. The arrest came after a magistrate judge last week rejected prosecutors’ initial bid to charge the journalist.
Trump announces Kevin Warsh as nomination for Fed
Trump says he’ll nominate former Federal Reserve governor Kevin Warsh to be the next Fed chair.
Friday’s pick is likely to result in sharp changes to the powerful agency that could bring it closer to the White House and reduce its longtime independence from day-to-day politics.
Warsh would replace Jerome Powell when his term expires in May. Trump chose Powell to lead the Fed in 2017 but recently has assailed him for not cutting interest rates quickly enough. Warsh’s appointment requires Senate confirmation.
Warsh was on the Fed’s board from 2006 to 2011. He’s a fellow at the right-leaning Hoover Institution and a lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Trump to impose tariffs for selling, providing oil to Cuba
Trump has signed an executive order that would impose a tariff on any goods from countries that sell or provide oil to Cuba, a move that puts pressure on Mexico.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum says her government had at least temporarily stopped oil shipments to Cuba.
She says it was a “sovereign decision” not made under pressure from the U.S. Trump has squeezed Mexico to distance itself from the Cuban government. In the wake of the U.S. military operation to oust former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Trump has said the Cuban government is ready to fall.
Trump sues IRS and Treasury for $10 billion over leaked tax information
Trump is suing the IRS and Treasury Department for $10 billion, as he accuses the federal agencies of a failure to prevent a leak of the president’s tax information to news outlets between 2018 and 2020.
The suit, filed in a Florida federal court, includes the president’s sons Eric Trump and, Donald Trump Jr. and the Trump organization as plaintiffs.
Melania Trump’s documentary premieres at the Kennedy Center
Melania Trump is capping her first year back as first lady with the global release of a documentary she produced about the 20 days leading up to her husband’s return to the White House.
A private person, Melania Trump remains a bit of a mystery to the public in her husband’s second term. “Melania” premiered Thursday at the Kennedy Center before it is released on Friday in more than 1,500 theaters in the U.S. and around the world.
