Idiocracy

Axios reports: In a briefing with Capitol Hill reporters Thursday afternoon, Vice President Mike Pence made it clear that the Trump administration won’t give in on wall funding, but said that Trump “has made no decision” as to whether he’ll declare a national emergency. He also suggested that the administration does not want to trade DACA protections for wall funding. …

Mediaite reports: President Donald Trump is back on Twitter, this time disputing Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer‘s account of how their meeting together fell apart yesterday. Schumer, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Congressional Democrats journeyed to the White House yesterday for a new round of discussions about the government shutdown over Trump’s demand for a border wall. After negotiations …

NBC News reports: The ongoing federal government shutdown has stopped most food safety inspections, but the Food and Drug Administration is planning to resume at least some of them. To do it, the agency will have to force furloughed workers to come back without pay. FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb said he is trying to pinpoint the most essential inspections, …

The Washington Post reports: Employees of the U.S. Coast Guard who are facing a long U.S. government shutdown just received a suggestion: To get by without pay, consider holding a garage sale, babysitting, dog-walking or serving as a “mystery shopper.” The suggestions were part of a five-page tip sheet published by the Coast Guard Support Program, an employee-assistance arm of …

The Hill reports: President Trump on Wednesday dismissed his meeting with Democratic leaders to negotiate an end to a partial government shutdown as a “total waste of time.” Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) told reporters outside the White House that Trump “just walked out of the meeting.” The gathering lasted for roughly a half hour. The president met with …

The Washington Post reports: The National Treasury Employees Union became the second federal employees’ union to file a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the shutdown. Tuesday’s collective action alleges more than 400,000 federal employees — including tens of thousands of NTEU members — are being forced to work without pay during the partial government closure. The complaint asked that …

Market Watch reports: Donald Trump’s loose grip on the truth just cost one gambling site dearly. Before the president’s address on border security Tuesday night, Bookmaker.eu put the over/under on the number of lies he’d spew at 3.5. For bettors, it was a no-brainer, as hundreds of thousands of dollars loaded up on the over. In fact, Bookmaker odds consultant …

USA Today reports: President Donald Trump said in a Wednesday tweet that he is cutting off federal money to fight California wildfires, claiming the money is being wasted. State officials have accused Trump of playing politics with the California wildfires, and said he does not understand the issues involved in fighting fires. Trump’s declaration comes as he takes political heat …

The New York Times reports: In taking his argument to a national television audience and on a trip to the Texas border he plans to take on Thursday, Mr. Trump hoped to reframe the debate. Yet privately, Mr. Trump dismissed his own new strategy as pointless. In an off-the-record lunch with television anchors hours before the address, he made clear …

CNN reports: President Donald Trump will declare to an American television audience Tuesday there is a crisis at the US southern border and that a wall is the best and only remedy — an exceptional step, at odds with facts, to fulfill his central campaign promise. After weeks of a partial government shutdown, Trump and his negotiators have made little …

Reuters reports: The White House got a first hand look — or maybe, smell — of the partial government shutdown’s impact Tuesday, thanks to a shipment of trash from California. Reps. Jackie Speier, D-California, and Jared Huffman, D-California, picked up trash at Lands End and Ocean Beach with the group San Francisco Dog Owners over the weekend. Those are two …

The Washington Examiner reports: White House press secretary Sarah Sanders made an “unfortunate misstatement” about border security, her colleague Kellyanne Conway said Monday. Sanders was fact-checked by “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace on Sunday about her claim that about 4,000 known or suspected terrorists have been apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border. Government figures show in fiscal 2017 most of …

Mediaite reports: “How can his word be trusted when he has said so many things that are not true?” ABC’s Jon Karl asked. “How can the American people trust the president when he says this is a crisis, when he says things over and over again that aren’t true?” “The American people aren’t as concerned about the political debate as …

Talking Points Memo reports: President Trump will visit the U.S.-Mexico border on Thursday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced Monday. The government shutdown has dragged on over Trump’s insistence on more than $5 billion for a border wall. No end to the shutdown before then, apparently. President @realDonaldTrump will travel to the Southern border on Thursday to meet …

Mediaite reports: President Trump appears to be upset with media outlets for not covering a recent and glowing jobs report to the degree that he would prefer. In a vacuum of news, this would certainly get more attention than it has, but the nation is currently in day 17 of a government shutdown over a significant political impasse over Trump’s …

The Daily Beast reports: President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he can “relate” to federal workers who are not getting paid during the ongoing partial government shutdown. He also insisted that they agree with his push to secure funding for a border wall. “I can relate, and I’m sure that the people that are on the receiving end will …

CNN reports: President Donald Trump is inclined to declare a national emergency to secure military funding for his long-promised southern border wall if talks between administration officials and top lawmakers from both parties continue to stall, a White House official told CNN on Saturday. While not the administration’s preferred plan, the use of emergency powers to fund the wall “provides …

The Hill reports: President Trump said Saturday that he wants to end a partial government shutdown, claiming that he doesn’t “care that most of the workers not getting paid are Democrats.” The government entered a partial shutdown on Dec. 22, closing 25 percent of the government and leaving hundreds of thousands of workers furloughed or forced to work without pay …

Politico reports: President Donald Trump claimed without evidence on Friday that past presidents have privately confided to him that they regret not building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. But at least three of the four living U.S. presidents — Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama — did no such thing. Asked if Clinton told Trump that he …

At yesterday’s meeting with Schumer and Pelosi. The Daily Beast reports: President Trump kicked off the meeting with a rant lasting roughly 15 minutes that included his $5.6 billion demand for a border wall, and threatened that he was willing to keep the government closed for “years” if that’s what it took to get his wall. He also, unprompted, brought …