BY PRIYANKA ARIBINDI & CROOKED MEDIA

Thursday, January 3, 2019

—House Democratic Caucus Chair Hakeem Jeffries referencing Naughty by Nature while nominating Nancy D’Alesandro Pelosi as the next Speaker of the House

OUT WITH THE OLD

A new Congress was sworn in today, with Democrats taking control of the House of Representatives for the first time since 2011 and Nancy Pelosi taking the Speaker’s gavel from Paul Ryan’s newly unemployed hand. (Metaphorically speaking—the new House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was the one to actually hand it over.)

After receiving 220 votes—more than the 216 she needed from members of the House—Pelosi took the oath to become Speaker of the House of the 116th Congress while surrounded by the children of the newly instated members.

Fast facts about the 116th Congress:

• The breakdown in the House is 235 Democrats and 199 Republicans, with the congressional race in NC-09 still unresolved. The breakdown in the Senate is 53 Republicans and 47 Democrats (two of whom are Independents).
• This is the most diverse Congress in U.S. history, with a record-breaking 127 women taking office—47 of whom are women of color.
• This Congress includes the first-ever Muslim and Native American women elected, as well as the youngest woman.

Under Pelosi, Democrats have pledged to vote to reopen the government, keeping funding for the closed agencies at current levels. Pelosi has emphasized that there will be “nothing for the wall” in the package, though it will keep border security funding at $1.3 billion. The White House responded today, issuing a formal threat to veto the House bill because of what they call inadequate funding.

Meanwhile, the partial government shutdown continues into its 13th day, as Trump’s allies urge him to keep the government closed while he seeks money for his wall, saying that even if he isn’t ultimately successful in receiving the $5.6 billion he’s asking for, it’s too soon to reopen the government. But mostly he’s worried about looking dumb. Tell that to the 800,000 people who aren’t bringing home paychecks, and D.C. residents whose city is overflowing with trash.

Tomorrow, Trump is scheduled to meet with House and Senate leaders from both parties to discuss the shutdown and the wall. Meanwhile, Democrats are plowing ahead with their agenda, which in addition to reopening the government, includes anti-corruption reforms that will limit the influence of lobbying, implement campaign finance reform, require the president to release tax returns, and expand voting rights.

Conservatives are back to dunking on themselves in attempts to make Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) look bad—this time by trying to circulate a video of her doing a dance from “The Breakfast Club” while she was in college. The biggest takeaways from this video are as follows:

• AOC is fun.
• AOC is a good dancer.
• AOC had friends in college.

But tell us more about how totally-cool former Speaker Paul Ryan used to dream about gutting Medicaid while hanging out at his frat.

According to officials, the White House is considering former Democratic senator Jim Webb to serve as the next Defense Secretary. Webb is highly critical of the Iraq war and China, and as Trump seeks to withdraw from Syria and Afghanistan and be more aggressive with the Chinese, Webb may surpass other Republicans in the running. The position opened after Jim Mattis resigned last month following Trump’s announcement of rapid withdrawal of American forces from Syria.

The Trump administration is considering a broad rollback of civil rights laws that would weaken federal rules against discrimination in education and housing. Through “disparate impact” regulations, certain actions that have uneven effects can be deemed discriminatory, regardless of what they were intended for on paper. The DOJ recently told civil rights officials to determine how various areas of American life would be impacted if these regulations were changed or nixed entirely.

The House easily passed the new Democratic rules package, including a “PAYGO” provision that requires any new spending to be offset by cuts to current spending (or met with an increase in revenue). Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ro Khanna worried that this rule would hinder progressive policies from being implemented, though they were two of only three Democrats to vote against the package.

The Justice Department is now investigating whether former Interior Department Secretary Ryan Zinke lied to inspector general investigators—a potential criminal violation. Hope you look good in orange, buddy.

Because he couldn’t handle two and a half minutes out of the spotlight, President Trump took to the White House briefing room with border patrol and ICE agents soon after the new Congress was sworn in to insist that he has support for his wall (he doesn’t).

For the first time in 16 years, Apple decreased its revenue expectations yesterday, citing slowing sales of iPhones in China. The announcement was met with increased fear about the Chinese economy and its effect on global markets.

China landed a probe on the far side of the moon yesterday for the first time in history. When reached for comment, Pink Floyd said, “told you so.”

A new study found that the Nazis killed almost 1.5 million Jews in three months. That’s equal to 25 percent of the victims of the Holocaust, at a rate that is much higher than previously thought.

Trump is really leaning into Game of Thrones memes of himself, though it doesn’t seem like he has any fucking clue what happened on the show because (spoiler alert!) the wall didn’t quite work out. When you play the game of memes, you win or you die.

Pod Save America is back! On today's episode, Jon Favreau and Dan Pfeiffer talk through the shutdown, PAYGO, Elizabeth Warren's presidential bid, and Mitt Romney's op-ed. Then, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) joins them to discuss the shutdown, immigration, and the Congressional Progressive Caucus's priorities.

Listen →

When asked about complaints by women who worked on his 2016 presidential campaign that sexual harassment, mistreatment, and pay disparities went unaddressed, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) apologized to “any woman who feels like she wasn’t treated properly,” but closed by reiterating that he didn’t know it was happening because he “was a little bit busy running around the country trying to make the case.”

Your staffers—the people who spent all day every day trying to get you elected—say they were harassed and mistreated on your campaign. Maybe don’t sound so fucking dismissive.

The president of the Outback Bowl, a college bowl game played by third place teams that generates $11.9 million in revenue, is paid over $1 million for organizing a single football game each year—played by college students who are all unpaid.

We watch and wager on college athletes, off of whom universities profit endlessly, while they work for hours, often up to seven days a week, for nothing. And that’s if all goes according to plan, and they don’t get hurt. Meanwhile, in nearly 80 percent of states, the top coach takes home the largest paycheck of any state employee.

Pay college athletes. And maybe reconsider how much you’re paying everyone else.

Today Maine’s new Democratic governor Janet Mills signed an executive order to implement Medicaid expansion after being sworn into office on Wednesday evening. The order, which expands healthcare to more than 70,000 people in Maine, comes over a year after Maine voters voted to expand Medicaid, though former GOP Governor Paul LePage refused to implement it at the time. Elections matter.

Honestly, it's a toss up.

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