| | | | Trump takes the 'emergency' exit |  | | We're ending the week on a high note: The government isn't going to shut down tonight!
Republicans, Democrats, Congress and the President came together (mostly), put aside their differences (kinda), and have passed a stopgap spending bill that lacks Trump's stated $5.7 billion for the border wall. He officially signed the bill this afternoon.
But Democrats are already readying challenges against the national emergency declaration, and many congressional Republicans are not jazzed about the route that circumvents Capitol Hill. Trump himself once called national emergency declarations "dangerous."
Trump today admitted that he "didn't need" to make the emergency declaration, but "I just want to get it done faster." The offhand comment will likely complicate things for his attorneys, who will have to defend it in court.
The President is going the extra mile by declaring a national emergency to build his border wall -- something he teased at in a campaign rally in El Paso, Texas, on Monday.
Trump also got something else this week: a new attorney general, Bill Barr, who served in the same position under George H.W. Bush. Barr will take the reins of the Justice Department -- which is, of course, involved in the Mueller Russia investigation.
There are still questions about what happens when the Russia investigation finally wraps up. What we know is this: In his confirmation hearings, Barr refused to commit to release Mueller's final report unchanged, but pledged transparency and said he would put out "as much as I can."
The Point: The government is funded, a deal is struck, but the wall is still TBD. Happy Friday!
And now, the week in 18 headlines:
Monday: Tuesday: Wednesday: Thursday: Friday: | | "Enjoy your life."
-- President Donald Trump to incoming Attorney General Bill Barr during a stem-winder of a news conference about his national emergency declaration. | | | RUSSIA INVESTIGATION LATEST | | | We saw some major news on the Russia investigation front today: White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders was interviewed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office, CNN's Pamela Brown and Alex Rogers report.
New documents contradict Trump attorneys' statements over hush-money payments, according to House Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings.
Mueller's prosecutors say they proof Roger Stone communicated with WikiLeaks. Meanwhile, Stone -- and his lawyers -- have been put under a gag order by a judge. | |
WATCH: RANKING THE 2020 FIELD | |  | 2020 Democrat rankings: Biden up, Beto down | | | Top-tier Democrats hit the ground running (for president) as 2019 began. Chris reveals which politicians are leading the ever-growing pack. | | | Point editor Leigh could not recommend Noah Gundersen's B-Sides from White Noise more. And lucky for us, it's all now on Spotify. | | ✅ FACTS FIRST: OFF THE RAILS? | | CNN Fact Checker Holmes Lybrand is back for a fact check on the Twitter back-and-forth between President Donald Trump and California Gov. Gavin Newsom over who owes whom for California's scrapped high-speed rail plan:
A tiff between Trump and California Gov. Gavin Newsom materialized on Twitter this week after Newsom announced an end to plans of building a high-speed rail connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco.
"They owe the Federal Government three and a half billion dollars," Trump tweeted. "Fake news," Newsom wrote back. "We're building high-speed rail, connecting the Central Valley and beyond. This is CA's money, allocated by Congress for this project. We're not giving it back."
Who's right? Newsom, for now.
Simply put, the federal government gave two grants -- which total about $3.5 billion -- to California for the bullet train project. The grants came with agreements, and if California doesn't meet them, they'd owe the money back.
Both grants require California to build a high-speed train track for the "initial central valley section," a 120-mile stretch from Madera County to Kern County, by the end of December 2022. (Funny enough, "trains" are not included in the agreement, just the track.)
Newsom says they're still building that section and won't owe the Fed a dime.
We'll see.
Want to see more fact checks? Let us know what you'd like Holmes to check out next: holmes.lybrand@cnn.com. | | Bill Weld: The former Libertarian vice presidential candidate and Massachusetts governor is exploring a primary challenge to Donald Trump in 2020, Weld announced this morning in New Hampshire.
Beto O'Rourke: Says he would take down the border wall separating El Paso, Texas, and Juarez, Mexico.
Michael Bloomberg: Is giving himself time to decide on his 2020 plans. He's told confidantes that won't happen until March -- at the earliest. | | Ruth Bader Ginsburg has returned to the Supreme Court.
Ginsburg attended a regular closed-door conference meeting among the nine justices, the court announced on Friday. This is her first time back at the Supreme Court since she announced her cancer surgery. | | | | | | |
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