| | | | This was a week for the history books |  | | There's a tendency in a presidency as, um, unorthodox as this one, to proclaim every week as some sort of tipping point or a pivot point or something.
Most of the time, this is an exaggeration. After all, if every week is a mountain, then there are no molehills. We lose all sense of perspective. By insisting everything is UNPRECEDENTED, it becomes hard for anyone to discern what really matters from what is odd, or abnormal, but not central to the presidency of Donald Trump. (I've struggled with this myself.)
So I'm not going to tell you why this past week was so important. I am going to show you.
First, we had Rudy Giuliani, Trump's lawyer and longtime pal, tell CNN's Chris Cuomo -- with a straight face -- that he never said that no one in the campaign might have colluded with Russians. Which, of course, both he and Trump have said many times.
This sort of goalpost-moving is the result of a series of revelations -- most notably that campaign chairman Paul Manafort had shared polling information with a Russian with ties to the country's intelligence service -- that make it pretty damn clear that something that looks a lot like collusion was going on.
Then came the bombshell from BuzzFeed alleging that special counsel Robert Mueller had evidence that Trump had ordered his one-time personal fixer, Michael Cohen, to lie to Congress about the breadth and depth of his conversations with Russians about the construction of Trump Tower Moscow.
That, if it's accurate (and neither CNN nor any other mainstream outlet has confirmed the BuzzFeed reporting), is a textbook definition of obstruction of justice. Which is a crime.
While Giuliani has insisted that Mueller has told him that Trump cannot be indicted as a sitting president, it is very possible that if the Mueller report shows obstruction of justice, then Trump would almost certainly face the prospect of impeachment from the House and Senate.
The Point: Draw your own conclusion. But if you ask me, this week is one for the history books.
-- Chris
And now, the week in 20 headlines:
Monday: Tuesday: Wednesday: Thursday: Friday: | | "He says that I'm a minute uglier than he is."
-- Democratic presidential contender Julián Castro on his twin brother (and US Rep.) Joaquin Castro in an interview on The View. | | | PROOF IS IN THE POLLING 📈 | | Among the flurry of new nationwide polling on the government shutdown, we have four key takeaways from the data, according to polling pros Jennifer Agiesta and Grace Sparks. - Blame for the shutdown, in the public's mind, rests largely with the White House.
- In four polls that asked respondents to place blame, the majority said they blame the President, while about a third in each said Democrats in Congress are primarily responsible.
- Many object to the shutdown, especially as a way to build the wall.
- 7 in 10 Americans said shutting down the federal government to reach an agreement on government policy is a bad strategy, and only 22% think it is a good strategy, according to a PBS NewsHour/Marist poll.
- Few see a wall as an effective way to combat undocumented immigration.
- The Pew survey found that only about a third of Americans (34%) said expanding the wall would lead to a major reduction in illegal immigration to the United States.
- Most confirmed what we knew before the shutdown: More people oppose the border wall than support it.
| | | Thank u, Ariana Grande, for your next new song that Lauren can't stop listening to: "7 rings." | | PUT IT ON THE CALENDAR 🗓 | | Sometime "near the end of February," President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will hold a second meeting about denuclearization, according to White House press secretary Sarah Sanders.
We learned this Friday after Trump held a surprise meeting with Kim Yong Chol, North Korea's lead negotiator on nuclear talks, for more than 90 minutes at the White House on Friday.
News of the Friday meeting was sent out just seven minutes before the talks began, according to The Washington Post's Seung Min Kim. | |
WATCH: THE LEADER(S) OF THE PACK | |  | These Democrats are leading the 2020 pack | | | It's presidential campaign announcement season, and Chris is breaking down CNN's first 2019 ranking of potential and declared Democratic candidates. | | Donald Trump: The President's campaign has announced a slate of hires dedicated to convention delegates and party organization.
Larry Hogan: Could Maryland's Republican governor (and one of the most popular governors in the country) primary Donald Trump in 2020? He's certainly showing signs that he's open to it -- oh, and he's going to Iowa in March.
Elizabeth Warren: Is going to Puerto Rico on January 22.
Joe Biden: The former vice president still hasn't made up his mind on running -- but his team has a plan for the campaign's infrastructure should he decide. | |  | B--YAH!
We still don't TOTALLY know how to phonetically spell out the high-pitched shriek Howard Dean emitted at an Iowa campaign stop in 2004, but we do know this: Dean's "I have a scream" speech went down in political history.
And it's actual history: It happened 15 years ago on Saturday. | | | | | | |
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