| | | | | Ivanka Trump and others listen during an event to launch the Women's Global Development and Prosperity Initiative in the Oval Office Thursday. Credit: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images | | What Washington is Talking About:
Acting attorney general Matthew Whitaker is testifying before the House Judiciary Committee, where he said he has not talked to Trump or White House officials about Robert Mueller's investigation; and former Rep. John Dingell of Michigan, the longest-serving member of Congress, died Thursday at 92. He served in Congress from 1955 to 2015 across 11 administrations, cast 28,551 votes, and helped pass legislation from the Civil Rights Act to the Affordable Care Act. He also sent some fire tweets.
What America is Talking About:
Jeff Bezos accused the National Enquirer of trying to blackmail him with nude photos; Frank Robinson, a Hall of Fame baseball player who became the MLB's first black manager and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, died at 83; and a Montana cat named Fluffy who was found buried in the snow, nearly lifeless, was saved is now home safe.
How 2020 Dems Reacted to Green New Deal:
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey's Green New Deal proposal was dismissed by the right and it doesn't have the backing of Speaker Pelosi, who appeared to throw shade at it during an interview with Politico ("The green dream or whatever they call it, nobody knows what it is, but they're for it, right?"). Ernest Moniz, a former Energy Secretary under Obama, told NPR it was "impractical."
But if you peep the list of co-sponsors for the bill on the Senate side, you'll see a who's who of people who want to be president: Sens. Bernie Sanders, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, and Amy Klobuchar. I mean, daaaaaang, right? Even if this bill has an ice cube's chance in Arizona of actually passing in the 116th Congress, we could be hearing about it for the remainder of the campaign. Green New Deal is not going away.
Ivanka's Not Concerned:
Ivanka Trump said she has "zero concern" that she or anyone close to her could be implicated in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation and that she knew "literally almost nothing" about a proposed Trump Tower in Moscow, in an interview with ABC's Abby Huntsman.
"There was never a binding contract," she said. "I never talked to the -- with a third party outside of the organization about it. It was one of -- I mean, we could have had 40 or 50 deals like that, that were floating around, that somebody was looking at. Nobody visited it to see if it was worth our time. So this was not exactly like an advanced project"
Huntsman also asked her about "Ivanka Vacuuming." Trump called it "a very sexist representation of a woman." She said what bothered her the most about it was that they hired a 16-year-old girl to play the model.
Abrams Leaves the Door Open:
Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate and SOTU 2019 responder Stacey Abrams told BuzzFeed's "AM to DM" she's "thinking about everything" when it comes to her political future. People including Obama adviser Dan Pfeiffer thinks she should run for president, and her state will have a Senate race next year. "I gave myself a deadline of the end of March to make a decision about what I'm going to do next," she said.
Abrams also said Virginia Democrats embroiled in scandals over blackface and sexual assault allegations should "take personal responsibility for their decisions" but she didn't say they should step down. "These are men who have tried to do the right thing in their professional lives but I think they have to grapple with their private and personal decisions."
Look Who Was on Amtrak Together:
Kamala Harris and former Vice President Joe Biden were on the same Amtrak train Thursday. Harris' sister Maya tweeted out a photo of the pols chatting. If Biden doesn't get an Amtrak pic with every Democratic presidential candidate before this whole thing is done, I'll be disappointed. | | Credit: @mayaharris_/Twitter
R-E-S-P-E-C-T for Aretha:
A bipartisan House resolution was introduced Thursday calling for Aretha Franklin to be honored with a posthumous Congressional Gold Medal to recognize her "outstanding artistic and historical significance to culture in the United States." Surely, our lawmakers can come together for this?
Street Art Sighting:
Last night was the opening reception for Open, an installation by projection artist Robin Bell, at the Corcoran School of the Arts & Design. Bell's "The Swamp" projected the faces of Trump administration members, lawmakers, members of the media, and foreign leaders onto skewed, stacked cubes, making for a trippy, glitchy viewing experience.
The piece is "an examination of the people who work in the power structures that govern," the gallery text reads. "The work aims to dissect power dynamics and examine the trilateral political structure and the system of checks and balances." Open runs 'til March 31. | | Credit: Hunter Schwarz
Tag or DM me your political street art sightings @hunterschwarz on Twitter or Instagram, or email me at coverlinehunter@cnn.com.
P.S.:
Thank U, Next is splendid, no? Ariana Grande's new album is out today, and she canceled her planned performance at Sunday's Grammys, tweeting it was because she felt her creativity and self expression was stifled by organizers. "it's about art and honesty. not politics," she wrote, which I now want to get tattooed across my back.
If you're watching the Ariana-less Grammys, enjoy, and have a good weekend. We'll see you back here Monday. Bye!
Kate Bennett is off. Her section will return next week. | | | | | | |
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