The government is close to reopening. The Senate voted Monday in favor of a temporary spending bill to fund the government until February 8th. The Daily Beast's White House Reporter Lachlan Markay explains rhetoric on Capitol Hill over this short-term resolution.
"Really all Democrats were able to get out of this deal was an agreement to vote on something that Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell insisted the Senate was already going to vote on," says Markay. "So from the Democratic perspective its not clear they got anything." McConnell promised the Democrats to vote on immigration reform as part of the spending resolution.
The House still needs to approve the measure the Senate passed in order for the government to reopen. With the funding extension, it's possible the government could face another shutdown in three weeks says Markay.
Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley is walking back an answer she gave to a voter about the reason for the Civil War that didn’t include a mention of slavery.
Maine’s Democratic secretary of state on Thursday removed former President Donald Trump from the state’s presidential primary ballot under the Constitution’s insurrection clause, becoming the first election official to take action unilaterally in a decision that has potential Electoral College consequences.
