President Trump causing a firestorm Wednesday after releasing an official statement saying his former advisor Steve Bannon has "lost his mind." Washington Examiner Commentary Writer Philip Wegmann explains the significance of this statement.
"I expected the pushback to come through a tweet because that's President Trump's style," said Wegmann. "But by going through the press office they made it official." The statement was reportedly in response to excerpts from a new book by Michael Wolff titled "In Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House."
"This was a serious miscalculation by the White House," said Wegmann. During Wednesday's White House press briefing Press Secretary Sarah Sanders doubled down on the administration's statement.
Real estate software company RealPage has agreed to stop sharing nonpublic information between landlords as part of a settlement with the Department of Justice.
A legislative package to end the government shutdown appears on track. A handful of Senate Democrats joined with Republicans to advance the bill after what's become a deepening disruption of federal programs and services. But hurdles remain. Senators are hopeful they can pass the package as soon as Monday and send it to the House. What’s in and out of the bipartisan deal has drawn criticism and leaves few senators fully satisfied. The legislation includes funding for SNAP food aid and other programs while ensuring backpay for furloughed federal workers. But it fails to fund expiring health care subsidies Democrats have been fighting for, pushing that debate off for a vote next month.
Sabrina Siddiqui, National Politics Reporter at The Wall Street Journal, joins to break down the SNAP funding delays and the human cost of the ongoing shutdown.
Arguments at the Supreme Court have concluded for the day as the justices consider President Donald Trump's sweeping unilateral tariffs in a trillion-dollar test of executive power.
