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Democrats unmoved by Trump’s State of the Union bid to break gridlock on border security

Top Democrats signaled on Tuesday that President Trump's State of the Union address did little to convince them that a legislative compromise to construct his proposed border wall is possible, as another potential partial federal government shutdown over the White House's long-promised project looms.
In his remarks, Trump made no mention of an emergency declaration to fund the wall, which his administration has floated as a possibility. But the president made clear that, one way or the other, the structure will eventually be completed, declaring: "I will build it."
"I am asking you to defend our very dangerous southern border out of love and devotion to our fellow citizens and to our country," Trump said, in a speech that variously referred to both "walls" and "barriers" at the border.
“Simply put, walls work and walls save lives," Trump added. "So let’s work together, compromise and reach a deal that will truly make America safe. ... This is a smart, strategic, see-through steel barrier –not just a simple concrete wall."
But with the current temporary spending bill funding portions of the government set to expire Feb. 15, several progressives in Congress -- both before and after Trump's speech -- registered sharp disapproval of Trump's comments.
EXPLAINER: WHY WERE DEM WOMEN ALL WEARING WHITE AT STATE OF THE UNION?
New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, for example, did not applaud even as Trump praised an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent, Elvin Hernandez, for breaking up a notorious human trafficking ring.
Ocasio-Cortez remained stoic through much of Trump's address -- pausing only to applaud as Trump praised women for their unprecedented representation in Congress, and as Trump discussed criminal justice reform and his decision to grant clemency to Alice Johnson, who was serving a life sentence for a nonviolent drug offense.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., center, listens as President Donald Trump delivers his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, meanwhile, told Fox News she was "saddened" Trump had not discussed gun violence in his speech, and she condemned what she called his "fearmongering" on illegal immigrants.
"I’m optimistic about what the appropriators are doing," Pelosi said, when asked how she felt Trump's address would impact ongoing bipartisan negotiations in Congress on border wall funding. "The only problem is if he would stand in the way of that path."
Still, there were moments Tuesday night in which Pelosi appeared to warm to some of Trump's statements. At one point during the address, Pelosi waived off Democrats who began to groan audibly when Trump mentioned an approaching migrant "caravan" at the border. And the House Speaker applauded briefly when Trump asserted that the U.S. would never become a socialist country, even as many Democrats remained expressionless.
Also speaking to Fox News, Delaware Democratic Sen. Chris Coons called for more substance from the White House.
"There were a number of potentially engaging proposals," Coons said. Nevertheless, he added, "They lacked details."
New York Democratic Sen.Kirsten Gillibrand, who has announced she is planning a White House bid, spotlighted her displeasure with the address on social media, tweeting out C-SPAN video of her eye roll reaction GIF and asking for campaign donations.
Gillibrand, once a moderate when she represented upstate New York in Congress, is now one of the most outspoken advocates for eliminating ICE. She admitted in 2009 when she was appointed to the Senate that she would have to change her views because she now represented "the whole state," rather than a traditionally conservative enclave. (During his speech, Trump praised the "heroes" at ICE and said the agency will never be abolished.)
Perhaps most notably, Stacey Abrams, the former minority leader in the Georgia House of Representatives and failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate, blamed Trump for the recently concluded partial federal government shutdown in the Democratic Party's official response to the State of the Union.
The remarks by Abrams, a rising Democratic star who made history Tuesday night as the first African-American woman to deliver a formal State of the Union response, suggested Democrats are confident that any future shutdown can similarly be blamed on the White House -- and that compromise may not be necessary.
"Just a few weeks ago, I joined volunteers to distribute meals to furloughed federal workers," Abrams said. "They waited in line for a box of food and a sliver of hope since they hadn't received a paycheck in weeks. "Making their livelihoods a pawn for political games is a disgrace."
Abrams continued: "The shutdown was a stunt engineered by the President of the United States, one that defied every tenet of fairness and abandoned not just our people--but our values."

President Donald Trump shakes hands with Vice President Mike Pence, as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi looks on, as he arrives in the House chamber before giving his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019 at the Capitol in Washington. (Doug Mills/The New York Times via AP, Pool)

REPUBLICANS TROLL 'SOUR GRAPES' ABRAMS FOR SUGGESTING HER ELECTORAL LOSS IN GEORGIA WASN'T LEGITIMATE
Abrams delivered her speech in the metro Atlanta area, surrounded by Georgia activists, labor leaders, health care professionals, educators, entrepreneurs, voters and her family, after Trump delivers his message. Abrams has said she accepts that Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brian Kemp defeated her in last year's election, but she has repeatedly suggested he is not the state's "legitimate" governor -- insinuations she repeated again on Tuesday.
"Let’s be clear: voter suppression is real," Abrams said. "From making it harder to register and stay on the rolls to moving and closing polling places to rejecting lawful ballots, we can no longer ignore these threats to democracy. While I acknowledged the results of the 2018 election here in Georgia – I did not and we cannot accept efforts to undermine our right to vote."

President Donald Trump acknowledges women in Congress as he delivers his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, as Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., watch, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

In his statement, Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Tom Perez implied the White House has lost its moral authority on illegal immigration.
"Separating families does not unify our nation," Perez said, referring to Trump administration's increased enforcement of existing immigration law, which resulted in more illegal immigrant parents being detained even though their children could not be similarly incarcerated. "Taking away people’s health care does not unify us. Blocking access to the ballot box does not unify us. Shutting down the government does not unify us. Building walls does not unify us."
TRUMP CHALLENGES PELOSI: IF BORDER WALLS ARE IMMORAL, WHY NOT DESTROY EXISTING WALLS?
Separately, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md, charged that Trump had "leaned on falsehoods and fear to obscure the reality of a presidency lacking in leadership and harmful to America’s future."
Hoyer, who has previously told Fox News that border walls "obviously" can work in some cases, vowed to press ahead with legislation designed to benefit so-called "Dreamers," or illegal immigrants brought to the country as children.
Trump announced last month that he was prepared to back a three-year extension of protections for 700,000 such immigrants, who were were shielded from deportation under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. But in exchange, Trump demanded $5.7 billion for border wall and security funding -- making the proposal a nonstarter with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has called such a wall an "immorality."
"We will bring forward measures to ... protect DREAMers," Hoyer said Tuesday. Hoyer earlier told Fox News he disagrees with Pelosi that walls are necessarily immoral.
"A wall is -- that protects people is not immoral," Hoyer told Fox News' Bret Baier in January. "The debate ought to be not on morality or racism."

Stacey Abrams, in State of the Union response, blasts Trump for shutdown 'disgrace'

Stacey Abrams, the former Georgia gubernatorial candidate and a rising Democratic star, blamed President Trump for the partial government shutdown in her response to the State of the Union address -- calling the shutdown a "stunt" and its impact on federal workers a "disgrace."
Abrams, who made history Tuesday night as the first African-American woman to deliver a formal State of the Union response, reflected on her experience volunteering with furloughed workers during the 35-day partial shutdown of the federal government.
"Just a few weeks ago, I joined volunteers to distribute meals to furloughed federal workers. They waited in line for a box of food and a sliver of hope since they hadn't received a paycheck in weeks," she said. "Making their livelihoods a pawn for political games is a disgrace."
She added: "The shutdown was a stunt engineered by the President of the United States, one that defied every tenet of fairness and abandoned not just our people--but our values."
Abrams delivered her speech in the metro Atlanta area, surrounded by Georgia activists, labor leaders, health care professionals, educators, entrepreneurs, voters and her family, after Trump delivers his message.
Abrams' criticism of the president comes after the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, which ended just last month when the president agreed to sign a three-week stopgap spending package to fund the government through Feb. 15. The shutdown, which began on Dec. 22, was over a border security stalemate. Trump requested $5.7 billion in funding for border security and construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, and Democrats vowed to block any type of package that included funding for the wall.
In that 35-day shutdown, more than 800,000 federal workers and contractors were left working without pay, or furloughed without pay.
Abrams lost November’s gubernatorial election to Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brian Kemp but has remained a power player in the Democratic Party.
“My reason for running for governor was simple: I love our country and its promise of opportunity for all, and I stand here tonight because I hold fast to my father’s credo—together, we are coming for America, for a better America,” she said.
Abrams reflected on her experience leading Democrats in the Georgia House of Representatives as minority leader, noting that she “didn’t always agree” with Republicans but “understood that our constituents didn’t care about our political parties—they cared about their lives.”
“It should be no different in our nation’s capital,” she said. “We may come from different sides of the political aisle; but our joint commitment to the ideals of this nation cannot be negotiable.”
Abrams highlighted the “most urgent work,” which was “to realize Americans’ dreams of today and tomorrow.”
“Children deserve an excellent education from cradle to career. We owe them safe schools and the highest standards, regardless of zip code,” she said, accusing the Trump administration of responding “timidly while first graders practice active shooter drills and the price of higher education grows ever steeper.”
Abrams called for lawmakers to tackle gun safety measures, and the “crippling effect of educational loans.”
She went on to blast the Republican tax bill, which she said “rigged the system against working people.”
“Rather than bringing back jobs, plants are closing, layoffs are looming and wages struggle to keep pace with the actual cost of living,” she said.
Abrams urged lawmakers to protect expanding health care, rather than “suing to dismantle the Affordable Care Act.”
Abrams also defended abortion and Roe v. Wade, saying it is "immoral to allow politicians to harm women and families to advance a political agenda;" the LGBTQ community, saying they are still "under attack" even after affirming marriage equality; and voting rights -- an issue she has been vocal on.
"The foundation of our moral leadership around the globe is free and fair elections, where voters pick their leaders – not where politicians pick their voters," she said.
But despite criticizing Trump, Abrams offered general support to the president.
“Even as I am very disappointed by the president’s approach to our problems—I still don’t want him to fail,” she said. “But we need him to tell the truth, and to respect his duties and the extraordinary diversity that defines America.”
She added: “Our progress has always found refuge in the basic instinct of the American experiment – to do right by our people. And with a renewed commitment to social and economic justice, we will create a stronger America, together. Because America wins by fighting for our shared values against all enemies: foreign and domestic.  That is who we are – and when we do so, never wavering - the state of our union will always be strong.”
Abrams, an attorney, was the first black leader in the Georgia statehouse, having previously served as House minority leader. She is also an award-winning romance novelist, penning eight books under the nom de plume Selena Montgomery.
Recently, Democrats have even encouraged Abrams to run for Senate in 2020.
But Republicans took a swipe at Abrams ahead of the address Tuesday, nicknaming her “SourGrapesStacey” in reference to her refusal to concede in Georgia’s hard-fought gubernatorial race last year. The National Republican Senatorial Committee, which recruits and supports Republicans for the Senate, released a video ahead of her speech titled “What Stacey Abrams stands for in less than 30 seconds.”
It shows her refusing to concede the 2018 race, saying, “This is not a speech of concession.” It also shows clips of Abrams discussing the possibility of Trump being impeached and her saying she “wouldn’t oppose” non-citizens voting.

Elizabeth Warren listed race as 'American Indian' in newly revealed Texas State Bar card from 1986

Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren indicated that her race was "American Indian" in a handwritten registration form filed in 1986 with the Texas State Bar, according to a new report on Tuesday that documents the presidential hopeful's efforts to identify as a minority during her earliest days as a law professor.
The revelation, initially reported by The Washington Post, is the first known instance of Warren claiming Native American ancestry in an official document or in her own handwriting. It threatened to add more ammunition to already-frequent attacks by Republicans, including President Trump, deriding Warren for claiming such ancestry to bolster her academic career.
Warren's office, questioned by The Post, did not dispute the authenticity of the bar card.
Last week, Warren apologized to the Cherokee Nation for taking a DNA test in an attempt to prove she had Native-American ancestry, and on Tuesday, she again more broadly apologized for identifying as Native American "for almost two decades," according to The Post.
Republicans characterized Warren's apologies as politically motivated and insincere.
“For the seven years this has been in the news, Elizabeth Warren has refused to apologize. Now, four days before her formal presidential launch, she’s issued a politically opportunistic apology that doesn’t go nearly far enough," Republican National Committee (RNC) spokesman Mike Reed said in a statement, referring to Warren's plan to formally begin her campaign for the White House on Saturday. "Warren pretended to be a minority to climb the Ivy League ladder – a lie that will continue to haunt her presidential ambitions.” can add if possible?"
The bright-yellow bar card is dated April 1986, when Warren was a professor at the University of Texas School of Law. Past reporting by several outlets, including CNN, had indicated that Warren "had not" listed herself as a minority in her "student applications and during her time as a teacher at the University of Texas." Records unearthed by The Boston Globe found that in 1981, 1985, and 1988, personnel forms at the University of Texas showed that Warren had called herself "white."
The State Bar document, which functions as a kind of directory entry for lawyers, is among multiple instances in which Warren described herself as a Native American. She indicated that she was Cherokee in an Oklahoma cookbook called " Pow Wow Chow" in 1984, and listed herself as a minority in the Association of American Law Schools Directory of Faculty from 1986 to 1995 -- a move she said later was an effort to "connect" with other “people like me."
Warren dropped off the list in 1995, after moving to Harvard Law School. But in 1996, an article in the student-run Harvard Crimson apparently indicated that faculty members and administrators still believed Warren was Native American.
"Although the conventional wisdom among students and faculty is that the Law School faculty includes no minority women, Chmura said Professor of Law Elizabeth Warren is Native American," the article stated, referring to Harvard spokesman Mike Chmura.
And a 2005 document obtained by The Hill indicated that the University of Pennsylvania Law School considered Warren among its past minority faculty members. Warren, who had resigned by the time the university published that document, taught at the law school in the 1980s and 1990s before taking a professorship at Harvard.
Through it all, Warren has maintained that she did not use her claims of ancestry to advance her academic career. An extensive investigation by the Globe did not support the contention that Harvard had relied on Warren's' claims of Native American heritage in deciding whether to hire her.
Randall Kennedy, a law professor in charge of recruiting minority candidates at Harvard at the time, told the Globe that Warren was never considered a minority for hiring purposes.
“She was not on the radar screen at all in terms of a racial minority hire,” Kennedy said. “It was just not an issue. I can’t remember anybody ever mentioning her in this context."
Warren's prospective presidential candidacy has had a rocky start since she announced that she had formed an exploratory committee for a White House bid on Dec. 31. That evening, Warren was widely mocked for appearing in an Instagram live feed and awkwardly telling the audience, "Hold on a second -- I'm gonna get me a beer."
Warren's' husband later walked into the kitchen, prompting Warren to tell him, "Thank you for being here." He replied, matter-of-factly: "Enjoy your beer."
Trump later savaged the episode as "the Elizabeth Warren beer catastrophe."
On Tuesday, filings revealed that Warren is worth more than $4 million -- complicating her effort to appeal to working-class voters with proposals like an unprecedented tax on wealth. in January, Warren proposed an unprecedented tax of 2 percent annually on all assets belonging to households worth more than $50 million, as well as a 1 percent tax on households with $1 billion or more.
Critics have charged that the idea is both dangerous and unconstitutional because it directly taxes wealth that is not transferred, invested, or earned as income, without ensuring the tax is evenly distributed across states.
And over the weekend, Harry Reid, the longtime Democrat who represented Nevada in the Senate for three decades and served as the Senate majority leader for eight years, declined to endorse Warren's nascent presidential run.
Although he called Warren a "good person" in an interview with The Boston Globe, Reid, 79, asserted that "my Nevada politics keep me from publicly endorsing her." He added that "anything I can do to help Elizabeth Warren short of the endorsement, I will do.”
Reid helped catapult Warren into the national spotlight by appointing her in November 2008 to the Congressional Oversight Panel, a five-member committee responsible for overseeing the federal bailout provided by the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act.

Ocasio-Cortez says Trump 'scared' after he vows America will 'never be a socialist country'

President Trump vowed during his State of the Union address on Tuesday that "America will never be a socialist country," in an apparent rebuke to self-described Democratic socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders that drew loud cheers and a standing ovation from Republicans in the House chamber -- as well as supportive applause from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
In response, Ocasio-Cortez told Fox News after the speech: “I thought it was great. I think he’s scared."
The progressive firebrand pointedly did not applaud as Trump praised an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent, Elvin Hernandez, for breaking up a notorious human trafficking ring, and she often stared ahead expressionless during the president's remarks. In an interview later Tuesday night, Ocasio-Cortez said she was asking herself, "Is this a campaign stop or is this a State of the Union?"
Trump cited the economic decline and civil disorder in Venezuela as a cautionary tale, after his administration last week imposed sweeping sanctions against the regime of Nicolas Maduro.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., center, listens as President Donald Trump delivers his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

The country's government in recent years limited citizens' access to foreign currency, implemented substantial subsidies and price controls on food and other items, and fell victim to sweeping corruption -- before effectively collapsing last month.
"Two weeks ago, the United States officially recognized the legitimate government of Venezuela, and its new interim president, Juan Guaido," Trump began. "We stand with the Venezuelan people in their noble quest for freedom -- and we condemn the brutality of the Maduro regime, whose socialist policies have turned that nation from being the wealthiest in South America into a state of abject poverty and despair.
BERNIE SANDERS ACKNOWLEDGES ECONOMY IS A 'DISASTER' IN VENEZUELA
"Here, in the United States, we are alarmed by new calls to adopt socialism in our country," Trump continued, prompting boos from Republicans in the chamber. "America was founded on liberty and independence -- not government coercion, domination and control. We are born free, and we will stay free."

President Donald Trump arrives to deliver his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Then, after a prolonged chant of "USA" broke out, Trump concluded, "Tonight, we renew our resolve that America will never be a socialist country."
Democrats largely remained seated as Republicans resumed the "USA" chant and applauded for several seconds. Sanders kept his head in his hand and grimaced, while Pelosi clapped in her seat.
Pelosi has already sparred publicly several times with Ocasio-Cortez, who sought last month to reject a Pelosi-backed rules package that would have effectively curbed some spending. Democratic leaders quashed that attempted revolt overwhelmingly. And Ocasio-Cortez last year personally joined environmentalist protesters conducting a sit-in at Pelosi's office.

"Tonight, we renew our resolve that America will never be a socialst country."
— President Trump

The effective collapse of Venezuela has forced some far-left progressive Democrats into an awkward position. In a series of social media posts in January, Sanders -- who is considering another run for the White House -- acknowledged that "the economy is a disaster" in Venezuela, but he largely blamed the Maduro government for conducting what he called a "violent crackdown" on dissidents and the rule of law.
For her part, Ocasio-Cortez is set to unveil a massive "Green New Deal" with Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Ed Markey next week, and on Monday she told her fellow representatives in a letter that the proposal calls for a "national, social, industrial and economic mobilization at a scale not seen since World War II."
Democratic leaders, including Pelosi, have not yet signed onto the expansive plan.

President Trump delivers his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, flanked by Vice President Mike Pence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

The Green New Deal proposal would lead to national net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, according to Ocasio-Cortez's letter, “through a fair and just transition for all communities and workers,” while also generating millions of “good, high-wage jobs."
Through it all, the Green New Deal would additionally “promote justice and equity by preventing current and repairing historic oppression to frontline and vulnerable communities," according to Ocasio-Cortez.
Several analysts have cautioned that the liberal firebrand is in over her head, even though the as-yet vague and uncertain details about the Green New Deal render a precise calculation impossible. Physicist Christopher Clack has warned that the cost could easily be into the trillions.
“It’s a daunting task, and I’m not sure that the authors of the Green New Deal fully comprehend how much they’ll need,” Clack said in an interview with The Hill.
Institute for Energy Research president Tom Pyle was more blunt: “One hundred percent renewable energy defies the laws of physics. It would be impossible to achieve.”
And Paul Bledsoe, a strategic adviser at the Progressive Policy Institute, said progressives were overcompensating. “I understand the value of aspirational goals,” Bledsoe said. “My personal view is, that undermines the credibility of the effort.”
Nevertheless, some 70 Democratic lawmakers have so far tentatively endorsed a Green New Deal plan, including Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and California Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris, both of whom are looking at 2020 presidential campaigns.

The Kneeler Cartoons

Ex-WH staffer Cliff Sims: Leaks of Trump’s schedule 'disgraceful,' either serve the president or quit

The former White House staffer who raised the ire of President Donald Trump recently by writing a tell-all book about his time in the administration surprisingly sided with the president Monday in blasting a recent White House leak.
Chris Sims, author of the book “Team of Vipers,” said on the “Todd Starnes Show” that the leak of Trump's private schedules was “disgraceful.”
“I mean, imagine working in a place where you can't know if everything, like everything, you say may end up in the press. Everything you do may end up in the press, every kind of internal conversation about me, or whatever it is. You can't trust anybody and that's kind of the atmosphere in there,” Sims told Todd Starnes.
He added, “This one in particular, I think, is particularly disgraceful because it was purposefully done in a way that would portray the president as not working hard. There are a lot of legitimate criticisms of Donald Trump. That's not one of them.”
PREVIEWING TRUMP'S STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS
Last Tuesday, Trump tweeted that Sims was “a gofer,” “a mess” and “a low level staffer that I hardly knew.”
Sims also weighed in on accusations the president is racist.
“I say that there's nothing that I experienced in my personal time with him over two years when I thought that he was racist,” Sims told Starnes. “I do think that there are times where he's missed some opportunities to lead on the race issue and to, you know, bring racial healing and reconciliation in a way that only the president can with that kind of bully-pulpit microphone that he has. But, I never saw a single thing behind closed doors that gave me any reason to believe that, that he's racist.”
This past Sunday on NBC News' "Meet the Press," Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said “we have a president who is racist,” citing Trump's response to the 2017 attack in Charlottesville, Va., among other things. Brown was asked for his thoughts in light of Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, apologizing but refusing to step down over a racist photo in a 1984 yearbook.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg makes public appearance, first since surgery

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Monday attended a concert called, "Notorious RBG in Song" in Washington, D.C., marking her first public appearance since undergoing lung cancer surgery last December.
The 85-year-old has been recuperating at her home in Washington since the procedure at New York's Memorial Sloane Kettering to remove the lower lobe of her left lung. Two nodules were discovered in a CT scan shortly after she broke ribs in a fall. She had two previous bouts with cancer, but doctors are optimistic that the surgery was successful and she is cancer free.
The justice sat in the back of the darkened auditorium at the National Museum of Women in the Arts and, according to The Washington Post, was only spotted by concertgoers as they left the performance.
The concert was presented by her daughter-in-law and other musicians. Patrice Michaels is married to Ginsburg’s son, James. Michaels is a soprano and composer. James Ginsburg said before the concert that his mother is walking a mile a day and meeting with her personal trainer twice a week.
Ginsburg’s recent absence from the court and participation from home is not unprecedented. The late Chief Justice William Rehnquist also worked from home and even authored several opinions while undergoing cancer treatment from 2004-05.

Chris Christie say he’d endorse Trump over any GOP primary challenger

Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor, said in an interview on Monday that he would endorse President Trump over any potential Republican challenger in the event that there’s a primary.
Christie, who recently said he’d make a better commander-in-chief than Trump, told MSNBC’s Chris Hayes that he would endorse the president over any Republicans that he knows of.
A handful of Republicans are sending signals that they’re taking a possible primary run seriously.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld is headed to New Hampshire in two weeks to headline “Politics and Eggs,” a must-stop for White House hopefuls. A source close to Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan told Fox News that Hogan, “more than others, is really taking it seriously.”
And an email this week by former Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s political group reminded supporters that “many have suggested Gov. Kasich should run, and he is keeping all of his options on the table.”
Christie praised Trump on the program for at least attempting new avenues of dialog with leaders like North Korea's Kim Jung Un.

'Green New Deal' details emerge, as Ocasio-Cortez preps big reveal of WW2-level mobilization

New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Monday unveiled new details on the so-called "Green New Deal" she plans to introduce in a matter of days, as she worked behind-the-scenes to rally congressional support for the proposal that could cost as much as $7 trillion.
Ocasio-Cortez, who is set to unveil the plan with Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Ed Markey, told her fellow representatives in a letter that the Green New Deal calls for a "national, social, industrial and economic mobilization at a scale not seen since World War II."
"Next week, we plan to release a resolution that outlines the scope and scale of the Green New Deal,” Ocasio-Cortez said in the letter, adding that the country's near-total economic transformation should take approximately ten years.
To raise awareness for the measure, Markey announced Monday he had invited Varshini Prakash, the co-founder of the Sunrise Movement environmentalist group, to be his guest at President Trump's State of the Union address Tuesday night. (Several other Democrats announced guests apparently intended to highlight their opposition to various Trump administration policies, while Trump himself extended invites to the family of a couple allegedly murdered by an illegal immigrant and a child bullied at school for having the last name "Trump.")
The Green New Deal proposal would lead to national net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, according to Ocasio-Cortez's letter, “through a fair and just transition for all communities and workers,” while also generating millions of “good, high-wage jobs." Details of the letter were first published by Bloomberg.
ANALYSIS: GREEN NEW DEAL IS MOST RADICAL LEGISLATION IN DECADES
Through it all, the Green New Deal would additionally “promote justice and equity by preventing current and repairing historic oppression to frontline and vulnerable communities," according to Ocasio-Cortez.

December 10, 2018 - Washington, DC, United States - Protesters seen holding placards during the Sunrise Movement protest inside the office of US Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to advocate that Democrats support the Green New Deal. (Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images via ZUMA Wire)

On Twitter Monday, Ocasio-Cortez reposted a claim from one of her advisers, Robert Hockett, arguing that "in this case, size matters" and that "the problems the Green New Deal addresses require solutions where bigger is better, imperative, and paraodixcally, more affordable."
Hockett is a lawyer and law professor, and is not an expert in environmental policy.
Several analysts, meanwhile, have cautioned that the liberal firebrand is in over her head, even though the as-yet vague and uncertain details about the Green New Deal render a precise calculation impossible at the moment. Physicist Christopher Clack told The Hill that the cost would easily be into the trillions.
“It’s a daunting task, and I’m not sure that the authors of the Green New Deal fully comprehend how much they’ll need,” Clack said.
Institute for Energy Research president Tom Pyle was more blunt: “One hundred percent renewable energy defies the laws of physics. It would be impossible to achieve.”
And Paul Bledsoe, a strategic adviser at the Progressive Policy Institute, said progressives were overcompensating. “I understand the value of aspirational goals,” Bledsoe said. “My personal view is, that undermines the credibility of the effort.”
Nevertheless, approximately 70 Democratic lawmakers have so far tentatively endorsed a Green New Deal plan, including Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and California Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris.
House speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has vowed to address climate change, has not publicly signed onto the plan, even though scores of progressive activists -- joined by Ocasio-Cortez -- staged a sit-in at her House office late last year, demanding action on the climate.
While there is no legislative text yet available for the Markey/Ocasio-Cortez proposal, a draft circulated by Ocasio-Cortez last week called for a committee to be formed to create a plan, and lays out a framework that includes eliminating greenhouse gas emissions from manufacturing and agriculture, while “dramatically” expanding energy sources to meet 100 percent of power demand through renewable sources.

FILE - In this Nov. 28, 2018, file photo, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., joined by from left, Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio., and Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., speaks to media at Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, to announce her nomination by House Democrats to lead them in the new Congress. Pelosi has appointed Castor to lead a special committee on climate change that replaces one eliminated by Republicans in 2011. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

To cover what would presumably be a gargantuan cost, it envisions financing by “the federal government, using a combination of the Federal Reserve, a new public bank or system of regional and specialized public banks, public venture funds and such other vehicles or structures that the select committee deems appropriate, in order to ensure that interest and other investment returns generated from public investments made in connection with the plan will be returned to the treasury, reduce taxpayer burden and allow for more investment.”
CRENSHAW, OCASIO-CORTEZ TRADE BARBS ON WEALTH TAX, NFL PROTESTS
As it stands, any such proposal would be almost certainly dead on arrival in the Republican-controlled Senate, and also possibly the House -- where it is not clear if a majority of Democrats would back a plan.
Even if Congress managed to pass a version of the Green New Deal, the White House could veto the legislation, and a two-thirds majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate would be needed to override the veto.
The Trump administration has made clear it would not accept Ocasio-Cortez's proposals. In January, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders derided Ocasio-Cortez's recent claim that the world will end in 12 years due to climate change, and suggested the Trump administration has little need for the progressive firebrand's thoughts in general.
"I don't think we're going to listen to [Ocasio-Cortez] on much of anything -- particularly not on matters we're gonna leave in the hands of a much, much higher authority -- and certainly, not listen to the freshman congresswoman on when the world may end," Sanders told Fox News' "Hannity."
Speaking at an event commemorating Martin Luther King Day that month, Ocasio-Cortez asserted that climate change constituted "our World War II" and added: “Millennials and people, you know, Gen Z and all these folks that will come after us are looking up and we’re like: ‘The world is gonna end in 12 years if we don’t address climate change and your biggest issue is, how are we gonna pay for it?'"
But conservative commentators have argued that most proposed solutions to global warming would do more harm than good, and also have accused climate activists of crying wolf. In 2006, a NASA scientist and leading global warming researcher declared that the world had only 10 years to avert a climate catastrophe -- a deadline that has come and gone.
Fox News' Adam Shaw contributed to this report.