As I reflect on the past year, I’m so thankful and overwhelmed by all the new experiences and memories. From launching new endeavors and engaging new voters to sharing my story with all of you. Thank you for joining me on this journey. There’s so much to discover in 2019!

House Democrats ready strategy to reopen government, deny Trump wall money

Democrats have settled upon a strategy for attempting to reopen the government when they take control of the House Thursday.

Democrats plan to pass a stopgap spending bill to fund the Homeland Security Department through Feb. 8. The legislation would continue existing levels of border funding without giving President Trump the new wall money he is seeking.

It is the same bill that the Senate passed unanimously the week before Christmas — before Trump decided he wasn’t going to support it, leading to the partial government shutdown that began Dec. 22.

The House will also pass six other bills to reopen federal agencies that have been shuttered for more than a week, sending hundreds of thousands of federal employees home on furlough. Those bills would fully fund the agencies in question through Sept. 30.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/house-dems-ready-strategy-to-re-open-government-upon-assuming-control/2018/12/31/bfe4773a-0d16-11e9-84fc-d58c33d6c8c7_story.html

NEWS: House Dems have decided on their approach to reopen government.

Will be a Homeland CR til Feb 8 (extending existing levels of $1.3b border funding) + full-year bills on the other 6, using the bipartisan Senate versions.

Expected to be made public later today.

Outgoing Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is quoting President Abraham Lincoln in a farewell message to defense employees, urging them to stay focused on their mission.

Mattis quoted from a letter Lincoln wrote in 1865 to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. It said: "Let nothing which is transpiring, change, hinder, or delay your military movements, or plans."

It seemed a veiled reference to the White House's national security policy.

Mattis, who resigned over Trump's decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria, said he's confident Defense Department employees will remain "undistracted from our sworn mission to support and defend the Constitution while protecting our way of life."

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/outgoing-defense-secretary-urges-employees-stay-focused-60091356?cid=social_twitter_abcn

The father of a victim of the Parkland, Fla., high school shooting slammed President Trump on Sunday for highlighting the privacy fence around former President Obama's home as part of a push for border wall funding.

"You f--ng lunatic. Are you seriously trying to put our former President at risk?" Fred Guttenberg tweeted.

https://twitter.com/fred_guttenberg/status/1079528463374127112
Guttenberg's daughter, Jaime, was killed at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in February. Fred has since become an outspoken advocate for stricter gun laws and a critic of the president.

His criticism on Sunday came in response to a tweet in which Trump cited a "wall" built around the Obama's home in Washington, D.C., to justify the construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/423300-parkland-victims-father-suggests-trump-putting-obamas-safety-at-risk

One ex-federal prosecutor said he is beginning to believe conspiracy with Russian election meddling is not the most serious crime Mueller is investigating.

Republican nominee in late July 2016, the FBI warned him that foreign adversaries, including Russia, would attempt to spy on and infiltrate his campaign.

It was a standard briefing, the kind routinely given to presidential candidates, capped with an admonition that Trump should call the FBI if he learned of any unusual approaches from foreigners.

But there was something the FBI didn't tell him.

The bureau just recently had opened counterintelligence investigations into four Trump advisers suspected of improper interactions with Russians — a fact, then-secret, that emerged much later in Congressional testimony.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/trump-russia-what-expect-mueller-2019-n949281?cid=sm_tw

An all concrete Wall was NEVER ABANDONED, as has been reported by the media. Some areas will be all concrete but the experts at Border Patrol prefer a Wall that is see through (thereby making it possible to see what is happening on both sides). Makes sense to me!

Jeb Bush just talked about my border proposal to build a "fence." It's not a fence, Jeb, it's a WALL, and there's a BIG difference!