January 1, Trump: Dems Behaving ‘Irrationally’ on Border Security

Republicans and Democrats are not communicating and the prospect of getting a deal by Friday’s deadline seems to have derailed over wall discussions.

President Donald Trump hit back at Democrats Sunday evening after congressional talks over border security funding hit a snag, raising the chance of a new government shutdown.

“The Border Committee Democrats are behaving, all of a sudden, irrationally,” Trump tweeted. “Not only are they unwilling to give dollars for the obviously needed Wall (they overrode recommendations of Border Patrol experts), but they don’t even want to take murderers into custody! What’s going on?”

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala., told “Fox News Sunday,”  that Republicans don’t want to offer concessions on ICE enforcement.

“I think the talks are stalled right now. I’m hoping we can get off the dime later today or in the morning, because time is ticking away, but we’ve got some problems with the Democrats dealing with ICE, that is detaining criminals that come into the U.S. and they want a cap on them,” Shelby said. “We don’t want a cap on that, ” said Sen. Shelby, who is leading the negotiations.

LA Times: CA Gov. Newsom Pulling Nat. Guard from Border With Mexico

The LA Times reports that “Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday will order the removal of roughly 360 National Guard members from California’s southern boundary with Mexico, repudiating President Trump’s characterization of a recent influx of Central American refugees and migrants as a national security crisis.”

“The announcement comes just one day before the governor delivers his first State of the State address Tuesday, setting the stage for Newsom to counter Trump’s State of the Union address from last week.”

Virginia Democratic expected to introduce impeachment resolution against Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax

According to CNN, the impeachment resolution introduced would be the first step in the removal process. The process begins in the House and if it passes with a majority vote, it moves to the Senate where they will hold a trial to determine if Fairfax will be removed.

Meanwhile, Virginia’s embattled lieutenant governor has called for an investigation in the Sexual assault allegations that have been made against him.

Two women have made allegations against Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax.

Over the weekend, Fairfax continued to strongly deny the claims, and issued a statement saying he had never sexually assaulted anyone. Lt. Gov. Fairfax also made it clear that he has no intentions of resigning.

Email From Roger Stone’s Wife Details ‘Terrifying Morning’ of Arrest

Roger Stone’s wife Nydia calls the morning of her husband’s arrest “the most terrifying thing I have ever experienced.”

Nydia Stone said that she woke up the morning of the raid only when two FBI agents burst into their bedroom and demanded she get out of bed at gunpoint. 

She said she was them marched out to the street barefoot wearing only a night gown, where she had to stand next to her handcuffed husband.

Mrs. Stone sent out an email over the weekend describing the pre-dawn raid on their house in Ft. Lauderdale last month.

The email was also a fundraising letter urging the public to contribute to her husband’s legal defense fund.

Attorney: National Inquirer Never Tried to Blackmail Bezos

Elkan Abromowitz, an attorney for American Media Inc. chief executive David Pecker, said on Sunday, that the National Enquirer never committed or even tired extort or blackmail the Amazon CEO by threatening to publish intimate photos of Bezos and his mistress.

Bezos claims AMI threatened to publish the explicit photos of him unless he stopped investigating how the Enquirer obtained his private exchanges with former TV anchor Lauren Sanchez. Bezos also says AMI wanted him to publicly declare that the Enquirer’s coverage of him was not politically motivated.

The Daily Beast reports that Michael Sanchez, “the brother of Jeff Bezos’ mistress, Lauren Sanchez, supplied the couple’s racy texts to the National Enquirer, multiple sources inside AMI, the tabloid’s parent company, told The Daily Beast.”

“Another source who has been in extensive communication with senior leaders at AMI confirmed that Michael Sanchez first supplied Bezos’ texts to the Enquirer.”