A political newsletter for normal people
WTF Just Happened Today? is a sane, once-a-day newsletter helping normal people make sense of the news. Curated daily by Matt Kiser and delivered to 200,000+ people every afternoon around 3 pm Pacific.
Day 368: Shutdown shut down.
1/ Senate Democrats voted with Republicans to approve a short-term spending bill to fund the government through February 8th. The bill will also reauthorize the Children’s Health Insurance Program for six years and roll back several health care taxes. Democrats received assurances from Mitch McConnell that the Senate will vote on a bipartisan DACA bill in the coming weeks in exchange for reopening the government. The Senate voted 81-18 to move forward on a bill to fund the government, which the House passed, sending the bill to Trump to sign. (Washington Post / New York Times / Politico)
-
How every Senator voted on ending the government shutdown. The vote passed 81-18-1. (New York Times)
-
Mick Mulvaney thought it was “kind of cool” to be the person in charge of shutting down the government. The director of the Office of Management and Budget told Sean Hannity: “I found out for the first time last night that the person who technically shuts the government down is me, which is kind of cool.” (Vox)
-
The White House changed its public comment line to blame Democrats over the weekend for “holding government funding, including funding for our troops and other national security priorities, hostage to an unrelated immigration debate. Due to this obstruction, the government is shut down.” (CNN)
2/ The deal to end the government shutdown included $31 billion in tax cuts. The deal includes a temporary delay in implementing three Affordable Care Act taxes that will add to the federal budget deficit. (New York Times)
3/ Paul Ryan received $500,000 in campaign contributions from one of the Koch brothers after the House passed the federal tax bill. The Koch brothers spent millions of dollars lobbying to get the tax bill passed, and are currently spending millions more on a PR campaign to boost public support for the bill. (HuffPost)
4/ The FBI said Devin Nunes refused to produce a memo that alleges abuses by the intelligence community. Democrats say the Republican’s refusal to show the memo has them concerned, and that releasing the memo to the public before showing it to the FBI could make tensions between the Hill and the bureau even worse. (The Daily Beast)
- #SchumerShutdown became the top trending hashtag promoted by Russian social media bots. The Alliance for Securing Democracy, a national security group led by national security officials from both parties, says the topic surpassed #releasethememo to become the highest trending hashtag as of 10 p.m. on Sunday. (HuffPost / The Hill)
5/ Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court ruled that the state’s GOP-drawn congressional districts were unconstitutional, ordering all 18 districts redrawn by February 9th. (Washington Post)
6/ Trump’s voter fraud commission asked Texas to identify all voters with Hispanic surnames as part of their request for detailed voter registration data. The voter data was never delivered because a lawsuit stopped the data handoff. The voting commission was then disbanded on January 3rd. (Washington Post)
7/ A member of the House Ethics Committee used taxpayer money to settle a sexual harassment complaint against him. Patrick Meehan had been tasked with investigating sexual misconduct claims against at least four congressmen. A spokeswoman for Paul Ryan said that Meehan would be removed immediately from the committee and that the panel would investigate the allegations against him. (New York Times)
poll/ 48% of voters think Trump is mentally stable, versus the 47% of voters who think he is not. 73% believe Trump is not a genius. (ABC News)
generic ballot poll/ 51% of voters say they would support the Democratic candidate in their congressional district over the Republican. 39% said they would support the Republican candidate. (Washington Post)
pre-shutdown poll/ 41% of voters said they would blame Republicans in Congress for a shutdown, compared to 36% who said they would fault Democrats. (Politico)
Notables.
-
A new book about the Trump administration is set to publish on Jan. 29. The book is titled “Media Madness: Donald Trump, the Press, and the War Over the Truth,” and it paints yet another picture of a White House in chaos. (Washington Post)
-
Trump sarcastically tweeted that Saturday was a “perfect day for all women to march. Get out there now to celebrate the historic milestones and unprecedented economic success and wealth creation that has taken place over the last 12 months. Lowest female unemployment in 18 years!” (Twitter)
-
Deutsche Bank reported “suspicious transactions” related to Kushner family accounts to German banking regulators. The bank also said it was willing to provide the information to special counsel Robert Mueller’s team of investigators. (Mother Jones)
-
The Army is preparing to send 1,000 more troops to Afghanistan this spring, beyond the 14,000 already in the country. (Washington Post)
A political newsletter for normal people
WTF Just Happened Today? is a sane, once-a-day newsletter helping normal people make sense of the news. Curated daily by Matt Kiser and delivered to 200,000+ people every afternoon around 3 pm Pacific.
Become a supporting member.
It's not enough to be a consumer of media. You must be a stakeholder in it. Invest in the continued production of WTF Just Happened Today? by becoming a supporting member. Choose from three recurring membership options below: