Giuliani claims 'I never said there was no collusion' in Trump campaign

President Trump's personal attorney, Rudolph Giuliani, claimed Wednesday night that he "never said there was no collusion" between members of President Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and Russian officials -- but he did say that Trump himself never colluded with Russian officials.
The former New York City mayor also said on CNN's "Cuomo Prime Time" that "if the collusion happened, it happened a long time ago. It's either provable or it's not. It is not provable because it never happened ... I'm telling you there's no chance it happened."
Trump previously denied any member of his campaign conspired with Russian officials. In May 2017, Trump flatly stated: "There is no collusion, certainly myself and my campaign."
Giuliani made the startling statements during a contentious conversation with host Chris Cuomo about allegations against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort made by Special Counsel Robert Mueller last week. Prosecutors said Manafort lied to them about sharing internal Trump campaign polling data with Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian-Ukrainian businessman with alleged links to Russian intelligence.
Giuliani admitted that Manafort was "wrong" to give the data to Kilimnik, but said "polling data is given to everybody."
"There is not a single bit of evidence the president of the United States committed the only crime you could commit here [and] conspired with the Russians to hack the [Democratic National Committee]," Giuliani said.
"First of all, crime is not the bar of accountability for a president," Cuomo responded. "It's about what you knew, what was right, what was wrong and what did you deceive about."
"The president did not collude with the Russians, whatever collusion is," Giuliani shot back, later adding that "I have no idea, never have, what other people [on the campaign] were doing."
"But [Manafort] ran his campaign," Cuomo said.
Giuliani also repeated his call for Mueller to wrap up his investigation quickly, saying the probe was "over enough" and calling it "the most inappropriate investigation I’ve ever seen conducted on an ethical level that’s disgusting."
"We’ve answered all the questions on collusion," Giuliani said. "We don't need a special counsel to investigate a campaign chairman. We have [Mueller] because the President of the United States is involved as a subject."

Ocasio-Cortez Maxine Waters Cartoons

Sen. McConnell: Senate will not go on recess is shutdown is ongoing

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., leaves the chamber after accusing Democrats of turning President Donald Trump’s promised border wall into “something evil” to avoid dealing with the security and humanitarian crisis at the southern border, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2019. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

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7:47 PM PT — Tuesday, January 15, 2018

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) says the upper chamber will not go on recess if the partial government shutdown is still ongoing.cConnell made the comments to reporters on Tuesday after House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) said the lower chamber will also not take a recess.
The Senate is supposed to leave town at the end of this week and not return until January, 28th.
McConnell is placing the blame for the shutdown squarely on democrats, telling reporters democrats priorities are “way out of whack.” He added issues once supported by prominent democrats are the same ones being opposed currently.
A number of senators have said they should remain in Washington during the shutdown as the record-setting closure continues.

Gillibrand tells Colbert she's forming presidential exploratory committee

New York Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand announced during a taping of Stephen Colbert's "Late Show" on Tuesday night that she has formed an exploratory committee for a 2020 presidential run, reversing her previous reassurances that she would continue to serve in the Senate instead.
Gillibrand, 52, will be entering an increasingly crowded field of Democrats seeking to unseat President Trump. She spoke largely in generalities on Tuesday, as she vowed to take on powerful "special interests" and work on behalf of children.
"I'm filing an exploratory committee for president of the United States, tonight," Gillibrand said, holding Colbert's hands as she spoke, in a video posted by CBS Tuesday afternoon. "I'm going to run for president of the United States because as a young mom, I'm going to fight for other people's kids as hard as I would fight for my own -- which is why I believe health care should be a right, not a privilege."
Fox News has learned that Gillibrand is heading to Iowa, which hosts the pivotal first-in-the-nation caucuses, on Friday for a meeting and fundraiser with local Democrats.
Less than three months ago, Gillibrand promised when asked directly about her possible White House ambitions that "I will serve my six-year term" in the Senate, rather than run for the presidency. Gillibrand won re-election in 2018, after being appointed to fill Hillary Clinton's seat in 2009.
New York GOP spokeswoman Jessica Proud had much the same criticism.
In a statement on Tuesday, she said: “It was only three months ago during the campaign that Kirsten Gillibrand point-blank lied to New Yorkers that she would fulfill her term if re-elected. In her lackluster career as an elected official, she has demonstrated a disturbing disregard for the truth and principled positions in the name of self-serving personal advancement. If she treats her current constituents with such disrespect, we shudder to think what she’d do to the nation.”
Added Republican National Committee (RNC) spokesman Michael Ahrens: “If you looked up ‘political opportunism’ in the dictionary, Kirsten Gillibrand’s photo would be next to it. From jumping on the ‘abolish ICE’ bandwagon to turning on the Clintons, Gillibrand always goes where the political wind blows. Democrats know it, which is why she’s barely registering in the polls.”
In her interview with Colbert, Gillibrand focused on providing equality of opportunity, which she said is currently "impossible."
"It's why I believe we should have better public schools for our kids, because it shouldn't matter what block you grow up on," she said. "And I believe that anybody who wants to work hard enough should be able to get whatever job training they need to be able to earn their way into the middle class.
"But you are never going to accomplish any of this things if you don't take on the systems of power that make all of that impossible, which is taking on institutional racism, it's taking on the corruption and greed in Washington, taking on the special interests that write legislation in the dead of night," Gillibrand concluded, haltingly and frequently interrupted by applause. "And I know that I have the compassion, the courage, and the fearless determination to get that done."
GILIBRAND MOCKED AS A PANDERER FOR SAYING THE FUTURE IS 'FEMALE,' 'INTERSECTIONAL'
Colbert's full interview with Gillibrand will air later Tuesday night.
Republicans, and some on the left, have recently criticized Gillibrand for apparently attempting to shed her moderate and establishment roots by pivoting deliberately and dramatically towards the progressive wing of the Democratic Party.
Analyst Nate Silver noted that Gillibrand has "the most anti-Trump voting record of any Democratic senator" -- but, he added, "that comes after she had a pretty moderate record when she was a House member from Upstate New York. Maybe it's not a bad thing in a system of representative government to change positions when you change constituencies, but she often gets accused of being opportunistic."
In December, Gillibrand was roundly mocked as a sexist panderer after saying the future is “female” and “intersectional."
“Our future is: Female, Intersectional, Powered by our belief in one another. And we’re just getting started,” Gillibrand wrote in a tweet.
Critics immediately claimed Gillibrand was trying to virtue signal to progressives ahead of run for president in 2020, looking to portray herself as a feminist firebrand.
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., for one, fired back at Gillibrand, saying “our future is: AMERICAN.”
“An identity based not on gender, race, ethnicity or religion. But on the powerful truth that all people are created equal with a God given right to life, liberty & the pursuit of happiness,” he added.
Gillibrand would become the fifth Democrat — and second senator — to jump into a presidential primary that could ultimately feature dozens of candidates. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts along with former Obama Cabinet member Julian Castro and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii are among those who have taken steps toward a 2020 run. Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Kamala Harris of California could also enter the race soon.
While Gillibrand's prominence as a face of her party has grown, she faces a tough battle to capture the attention of Democratic voters in a crowded field that's expected to include multiple women. Several of her potential rivals have spent more time in critical primary states while Gillibrand has visited one — New Hampshire — in October to stump for the Democratic candidate for governor.
She's expected to move quickly this week to make connections in the leadoff caucus state of Iowa. She's scheduled to headline a meeting with Democratic activists in Sioux City on Friday evening. The event is to be held at a private home with top donors to the Woodbury County Democratic Party.
Gillibrand has been in touch with some Iowa Democrats and enlisted the help of Lara Henderson, who was finance director for Fred Hubbell, the 2018 Democratic candidate for governor. But she hasn't built up a network in the state to the degree of prospective rivals, including Booker and Harris.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., with actress and comedian Amy Schumer, right, speaks at a rally against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh at the Supreme Court in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 4, 2018. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

She was appointed to the Senate in 2009 to succeed Clinton, who became secretary of state, and she easily won re-election, most recently in November. She has $10.6 million in her campaign fund, which can be used to jump-start a presidential bid.
During her time in the Senate, Gillibrand has been a central figure in Washington's reckoning with the #MeToo era.
In 2017, she was the first Senate Democrat to call on Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota, a fellow Democrat, to resign amid multiple sexual misconduct allegations. That landed her in hot water with some of her colleagues and progressive supporters, who felt Franken was unfairly maligned.
Gillibrand has also said President Bill Clinton should have stepped down after his relationship with a White House intern was revealed and has also called on President Donald Trump to resign over sexual assault allegations.
And before #MeToo, Gillibrand spent several years pushing for legislation addressing sexual assault in the military and on college campuses.
In recent weeks, Gillibrand has worked to expand her fundraising network and improve her standing among key voting blocs, including African-American voters.

Despite polls blaming Trump, Dems ‘run the risk’ of owning shutdown if they won't negotiate: Tom Bevan

As the partial shutdown continues, Democrats risk losing the upper hand if they continue refusing to negotiate a compromise with Republicans to reopen the government, Real Clear Politics founder Tom Bevan warned Tuesday.
Recent polls show Americans overwhelmingly blame President Trump and the GOP for the partial shutdown, which began Dec. 22 and is the longest in U.S. history. Meanwhile, House Democrats boycotted a meeting at the White House that was meant to sort out their differences over border security.
On the "Special Report" All-Star panel Tuesday night, Bevan weighed in on the current status of the political showdown, along with former White House press secretary Ari Fleisher and NPR national political correspondent Mara Liasson.
Bevan began by saying that despite poll data showing Americans blame Trump for the shutdown, Democrats are ‘starting to run the risk’ of taking ownership as well.
“Not even showing up to bargain at all, and even arrogance -- being on junkets in Puerto Rico while the government is shut down -- that’s not a good look for Democrats and that may end up hurting them in the long run if this continues to go on,” Bevan told the panel.
The Real Clear Politics founder added that Trump still has the "national emergency" option “in his back pocket” in order to build the border wall he campaigned on in 2016.
Fleischer argued that the word “compromise” used to be honorable and that it needs to become honorable again.
“You cannot have an answer to a governmental problem when the Senate wants to pass some $6 billion for the wall, the House wants to pass some $0 billion for a wall and the answer not be around three,” Fleischer said. “When one party says the answer is ‘zero, zero, zero’ and their only answer is ‘zero,’ we have a breakdown. I’m certain the Senate will go below six, I’m not certain the House will ever go above zero That’s the problem with compromise. If you’re not gonna meet the other body halfway, the problem is you -- and the problem is the House because they will not compromise.”
Liasson said the ongoing shutdown battle has “mind-boggled” her since “nobody is looking for the win-win solution.”
“Both sides do want border security. They define it differently. That’s how compromises are made,” Liasson said.

Ocasio-Cortez set to join Maxine Waters on key financial services committee

Self-described socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez announced on Twitter late Tuesday that she will join California Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters on the influential House Financial Services Committee, which oversees Wall Street and the housing industry.
California Rep. Katie Porter, Michigan's Rashida Tlaib, Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, and Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley have also reportedly been tapped for the committee by Democratic House leaders, and a vote finalizing their appointments is expected within days.
"I am very grateful for the opportunity to sit on this committee as a freshman, and look forward to working under the leadership of @RepMaxineWaters!" Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter late Tuesday. "Financial Services is one of just four exclusive committees in the House. It oversees big banks, lending, & the financial sector."
She added: "Personally, I’m looking forward to digging into the student loan crisis, examining for-profit prisons/ICE detention, and exploring the development of public & postal banking. To start."
The roles would afford the rising far-left Democrats a powerful platform to pursue the sweeping reforms they campaigned on, even as some moderate liberals voiced concerns that intra-party clashes would be inevitable. Ocasio-Cortez, 29, has suggested that the nation's largest banks should be broken up, and she shunned corporate donations during her House run last year.
Waters, the chair of the financial services committee, has vowed to counteract the Trump administration's 2018 rollback of the Dodd-Frank legislation, which the White House called "disastrous" and overbroad.
"Make no mistake, come January, in this committee, the days of this committee weakening regulations and putting our economy once again at risk of another financial crisis will come to an end," Waters said last year.
But other Democrats have sounded notes of caution about Ocasio-Cortez in particular, given her willingness to spar with Democratic leaders and her relatively radical agenda.

House Committee on Financial Services Ranking Member Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., left, listens during a hearing, Wednesday, July 18, 2018, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP)

“I don’t know enough about her to be able to determine if she’s going to be a good member or what,” Missouri Democratic Rep. Lacy Clay, who sits on the financial services committee and who was challenged in 2018 by a Democratic candidate backed by Ocasio-Cortez, told Politico. “Time will tell, and this one term will tell us a lot about her abilities as a legislator.”
Another financial services committee member, New York Democratic Rep. Gregory Meeks, backed Ocasio-Cortez's appointment to the committee but told the paper that he had some reservations.
HARRY REID SWIPES AT OCASIO-CORTEZ TAX PROPOSAL
"I don't want a scenario like they had on the Republican side — I don't think we're going to get there — where you had a Freedom Caucus that ends up just trying to break and stop everything and any kind of progress," Meeks said. The conservative House Freedom Caucus frequently sparred with more moderate House Republicans, particularly on immigration, last year.
Ocasio-Cortez, 29, has made no secret of her progressive approach to the financial industry. She has called for "taxing Wall Street to support tuition-free public universities and trade schools," and has argued that the banks she will soon oversee have long held undue influence in American politics.
But she has struggled to explain how she would fund her proposals to provide Medicare for all and guarantee housing and education, and has falsely claimed that wasteful military spending could be reappropriated to pay for her laundry list of policy goals.
The news of the progressives' appointment to the financial services committee was a win for progressive groups, who just last week voiced their disapproval when House Democratic leaders passed over Ocasio-Cortez and Tlaib for membership on other powerful committees. The Steering and Policy Committee, chaired by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, formally assigns members to committees.
Tlaib, 42, apologized earlier in the month for causing a "distraction" by calling President Trump a "motherf---er" and promising to impeach him. Just days later, she attracted negative press attention again by suggesting that some Republicans have a "dual loyalty" to the U.S. and Israel.
Tlaib was photographed this month wearing Palestinian robes with Sarsour, a proponent of Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam. Farrakhan has compared Jews to termites and praised Hitler.
"They forgot what country they represent," Tlaib, a Palestinian-American who made history by becoming one of the first two Muslim women to ever serve in Congress, wrote on Twitter, referring to Senate Republicans pushing a pro-Israel bill during the ongoing partial federal government shutdown.
In the wake of those comments, Democratic Massachusetts Rep. Richard Neal, who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, announced last week that Tlaib and Ocasio-Cortez had not been selected to join that panel. The Ways and Means Committee has vast authority over taxation, as well as Social Security and Medicare. New York Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi was named to the panel instead of Ocasio-Cortez.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., left, talks with Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., center, and Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., right, as they head to a group photo with the women of the 116th Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, Jan. 4, 2019. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

The far-left advocacy group Justice Democrats had called for Ocasio-Cortez, as well as California Rep. Ro Khanna, to be seated on Ways and Means. Responding to the snub by the committee, Ocasio-Cortez spokesman Corbin Trent said that "she hoped to be on it, but we're excited to see what committees she does get."
GROWING NUMBER OF 2020 DEMOCRATS SUPPORTING RADICAL 'GREEN NEW DEAL'
Khanna had also personally sought membership on that panel, and advocated for more freshmen representatives to be seated on powerful committees in general.
"Progressive representation on key House committees will decide whether or not we get Medicare For All, free college, a Green New Deal, and end to mass deportation and mass incarceration," Jusice Democrats said in a statement on their website.
The statement continued: "Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic leaders of the most powerful Congressional Committees are going to decide whether progressives or corporate-backed centrists will represent us in the fight for economic, racial, social and environmental justice."
Earlier this month, over the last-minute objections of Ocasio-Cortez and Khanna, House Democrats overwhelmingly approved most of a sweeping new rules package that effectively placed restrictions on some new spending. Progressive groups said the limitation would hinder them from realizing some of their more aggressive goals.
Ocasio-Cortez had voted with Khanna to oppose the so-called "pay-go" rule included in the rules package, supported by Pelosi. That rule requires that any new mandatory spending for entitlements or tax cuts be offset by other separate revenue increases (such as tax hikes) or budget-cutting measures so that the new spending does not expand the federal deficit.
The pay-go principle, Ocasio-Cortez charged in a tweet Wednesday, was a "dark political maneuver designed to hamstring progress on healthcare" and other legislation.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., administers the House oath of office to Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., during ceremonial swearing-in on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 3, 2019, during the opening session of the 116th Congress. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Also shot down was Justice Democrats' bid to have Tlaib placed on the Appropriations Committee, which announced a list of new members on Thursday that did not include Tlaib. The critical committee handles government expenditures.
“In my 12 years here, I don’t think there’s ever been a freshman on Approps, Ways and Means or Energy and Commerce," Kentucky Democratic Rep. John Yarmuth, who chairs the Budget committee, told Politico.  Democratic Reps. Ed Case and Ann Kirkpatrick are expected to join Appropriations instead.
But Justice Democrats has also campaigned for progressive California Rep. Katie Porter to join the financial services committee, a goal that was achieved on Tuesday.
Porter, a law professor, has repeatedly said she does not take money from corporate political action committees, which she characterizes as a corrupting influence.

Beto O'Rourke Cartoons

Beto O'Rourke mocked after offering few answers in wide-ranging policy interview

Former Texas Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke faced across-the-board criticism on Tuesday after an unflattering interview in The Washington Post portrayed him as equivocal and unsure on a variety of substantive policy issues.
O'Rourke, 46, is widely considered a possible 2020 presidential contender, after falling only a few percentage points shy of dethroning incumbent Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz in the 2018 midterm elections. But his relative lack of experience and expertise has emerged as a central objection to his prospective candidacy.
Speaking to Johnson in El Paso, Texas, O'Rourke added fuel to those concerns by repeatedly demurring when asked for a direct answer on his positions on everything from visa overstays to whether President Trump should withdraw military forces from Syria.
At one point in the two-hour chat with The Post's Jenna Johnson, O'Rourke openly wondered whether the U.S. can "still be managed by the same principles that were set down 230-plus years ago" in the Constitution.
The article even included an apparent shot by at O'Rourke from former Illinois Democratic Rep. Luis Gutierrez, who told The Post he was “very pleasantly surprised” that O'Rourke -- who represented a mostly Hispanic district during his three terms in the House of Representatives -- was "suddenly interested" in immigration reform efforts last year.
Asked what could be done about illegal immigrants who overstayed their visas,  O'Rourke told Johnson simply, “I don’t know."
MSNBC'S BRIAN WILLIAMS MOCKS O'ROURKE FOR INSTAGRAMMING TRIP TO THE DENTIST
Asked about the planned Syria pullout, he responded that there should be "a debate, a discussion, a national conversation about why we’re there, why we fight, why we sacrifice the lives of American service members, why we’re willing to take the lives of others. ... There may be a very good reason to do it. I don’t necessarily understand — and I’ve been a member of Congress for six years. ... We haven’t had a meaningful discussion about these wars since 2003.”
Asked whether the U.S. is capable of change, O'Rourke was again equivocal: "I’m hesitant to answer it," he said, "because I really feel like it deserves its due, and I don’t want to give you a — actually, just selfishly, I don’t want a sound bite of it reported, but, yeah, I think that’s the question of the moment: Does this still work?  Can an empire like ours with military presence in over 170 countries around the globe, with trading relationships . . . and security agreements in every continent, can it still be managed by the same principles that were set down 230-plus years ago?”
Johnson, who said she spent two hours in all with O'Rourke on a tour of the border, said her interview revealed that the potential 2020 contender has an apparent preference for questioning rather than answering.
"When it comes to immigration policy and changing the way things are, he has few solutions — and would rather debate and discuss the topic," Johnson wrote on Twitter.
Other commentators were less forgiving,
"This last bit – where he suggests we might need to ditch the Constitution? – is wild," wrote senior Huffington Post political reporter Kevin Robillard.
"In WaPo interview, Beto O'Rourke displays striking lack of knowledge about immigration. Just knows one thing: He's against a wall," Washington Examiner chief political correspondent and Fox News contributor Byron York wrote on Twitter.
"Beto might have to figure out what he thinks about Syria before the first debate," commented CNN political reporter Rebecca Buck.
O'Rourke will have another opportunity for a major interview on the national stage in just a matter of weeks -- with talk show host Oprah Winfrey, as part of "Oprah's SuperSoul Conversations from Times Square" on Feb. 5.
He'll speak to Winfrey one-on-one as part of an event featuring others, including actors Bradley Cooper and Michael B. Jordan.
In the meantime, O'Rourke has been visible --- and some critics say, perhaps too visible -- on Instagram Live.
"So, I'm here at the dentist," the former Democrat congressman said with a giggle during a teeth-cleaning seen live on the service last week, before quizzing the dental hygienist about life along the U.S.-Mexico border. ( "Thank God this wasn’t Beto’s day to see the proctologist," MSNBC anchor Brian Williams joked, quoting online reactions to O'Rourke's stream.)
Influential activists in Iowa and elsewhere are clamoring for Beto to get in the presidential race, and The Post's article noted that numerous onlookers interrupted their interview with him to urge him to run.

FILE - In this Nov. 4, 2018, file photo, Beto O'Rourke, the 2018 Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Texas, gives the thumbs up as he takes the stage to speak at the Pan American Neighborhood Park in Austin, Texas. O'Rourke didn't turn Texas blue, but for the first time in decades, it's looking much less red. Texas has long been a laboratory of conservatism. But cracks in the GOP's supremacy are emerging. The results could reverberate nationally. (Nick Wagner/Austin American-Statesman via AP, File)

"They're not going to wait forever," Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University in Houston, said of Democratic campaign operatives, donors, activists and fellow politicians looking to pick sides or offer endorsements. "The more candidates who start to formally launch their candidacies, the greater the pressure will rise on Beto."
Massachusetts Elizabeth Warren announced on New Year's Eve that she'd formed a presidential exploratory committee, hoping to get an early jump on people such as O'Rourke, former Vice President Joe Biden and Sens. Corey Booker of New Jersey, Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Kamala Harris of California.
Although O'Rourke has not yet entered the 2020 fray, his influence on the race so far has been apparent. In a move that channeled O'Rourke and New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Warren broadcast herself in her kitchen on New Year's Eve using Instagram Live, drinking a beer and thanking her husband for his presence.
But O'Rourke's appeal proved difficult to properly emulate. On Sunday, following a range of negative reactions to Warren's broadcast on social media, President Trump dubbed the stilted encounter "Elizabeth Warren's beer catastrophe."