🚨Just talked with POTUS:

HEINRICH: What do you say to Republicans who are trying to impeach Mayorkas?
BIDEN: I don't get it.
HEINRICH: Do you think its unconstitutional? (NO ANSWER)
HEINRICH: Do you think the border is secure?
BIDEN: NO ITS NOT.

(cont'd in next tweet) BIDEN: I haven't believed that for the last 10 years. And I've said it for the last 10 years. Give me the money.
HEINRICH: Do you believe your policies have enabled this crisis at the border?
BIDEN: No. I've asked for thousands more - everything from judges to -- anyway.
cont'd

NEW: Sources tell Fox the Biden administration is expected to re-designate the Houthis as a terrorist organization after formally removing the group from the FTO list in 2021. Officials have not yet said if the group will be placed under the same designation, but sources tell Fox there are a number of sanctions options that can be used in lieu of a formal FTO finding, which can take a long time to complete.

US citizens were excluded from a list of approved foreign nationals allowed to cross at Rafah today, atty for Massachusetts family trapped in Gaza tells me

Nationals permitted to cross were from Japan, Austria, Bulgaria, Indonesia, Jordan, Australia, Czech Republic, and Finland. lends credence to declarations from @MarshaBlackburn & @robertcobrien that this is turning into a massive hostage situation under 18 US Code 1203

I'm awaiting a reply from State Dept.

THREAD:

Per my conversations with two US officials, this is how we should understand the last 7 hours: Today’s barrage of intensified Israeli strikes ahead of an imminent ground invasion - coupled with US calling again for a humanitarian pause - was a negotiating tool to push for hostage releases.

Basically, one last big push to get hostages out before ground invasion begins.

🧵NEW, thread:

In an all-Senators unclassified Israel briefing, top officials from State, DOD, and ODNI told members the following:

Morgan Muir, Deputy Director for Mission Integration at ODNI, says THERE IS NO DIRECT LINK BETWEEN IRAN AND THE OCTOBER 7th ATTACKS. In fact, he claims to have reports that directly contradict the information that was being reporting in WSJ article.

Currently the US is reviewing intelligence they have gathered to see how this attack was missed.

🧵On the claim from some Republicans like Nancy Mace that the budget deal “expands government welfare” – @RepMolinaroNY19 tells me “NOT TRUE”. He explains it this way, adding that he ran this system for 12 years at the County executive level:

https://twitter.com/NancyMace/status/1663898210203492353

CBO assumes all new exemptions are new recipients – but in most cases they are already in the system, especially in blue states like NY.

Debt limit vote count thread: Right now, each side is fighting the perception that their leader (Biden for Dems or McCarthy for R’s) didn't negotiate a good enough deal – so there’s an ongoing effort to step up the vote count on each side, even beyond the votes necessary to pass. On the GOP side, if more Dems support the bill than R's on the floor, McCarthy may face a motion to vacate from conservatives on his right flank, already upset that the bill didn’t go far enough.

Debt limit update ahead of Biden/McCarthy meeting:
-WH offered 2023 baseline with 0% increase for 2024, then 1% for 2025. WH wants 2 yr-caps
-GOP wants FY 2022 levels, 1% increase per year with 10 yrs of caps
- possible compromise being floated: FY 2022, adjusted for inflation - both sides interested in reigning in pharmacy benefit managers
- WH proposed closing the carried interest loophole - which would not violate McCarthy's pledge not to raise taxes.
*GOP took this off the table, I'm told

NEWS: Starting at 12:01am ET on January 5th, all air passengers 2 yr + traveling from China will be required to test negative for COVID no more than 2 days before their departure from China, Hong Kong, Macau- regardless of nationality and vaccination status. This also applies to people traveling through the US who may only be here for a connecting flight.

In addition, people traveling through Incheon International Airport, Toronto Pearson International Airport and Vancouver International Airport and to the US --

🧵🚨THREAD AHEAD: State of play in the House speaker's race - first House Dem signals openness to voting for a GOP candidate, as McCarthy allies warn of what that would look like: As anti-McCarthy dissenters grow vocal about their intention to deny House GOP Speaker-designate Kevin McCarthy the speaker’s gavel, Republicans in his camp are warning of what concessions could lead to Democrats voting for a “unity candidate” – like a pledge not to impeach…

NEW: A looming national railroad strike -- potentially costing $2B/day in economic output -- threatens to snarl supply chains again.

I'm told President Biden, in Boston touting investments from the Infrastructure law, was personally in touch with both unions & companies today Biden's Labor & Transportation Secretaries are also heavily involved. A DOL spox tells me: “... last night Secretary Walsh again engaged to push the parties to reach a resolution that averts any shutdown of our rail system. This followed on dozens of calls...

🚨NEW, thread: from our Justice Dept producer Bill Mears:

A lawyer for Donald Trump had certified two months ago that no classified material remained at former president Donald Trump’s Florida, two sources with knowledge of the investigation tell Fox News. An FBI search of the Mar A Lago estate Monday, authorized by a federal magistrate, uncovered what a property list of seized items said included 11 sets of material listed as classified.

🧵Thread: the IRS is NOT hiring an army of gun-toting tax collectors using new Inflation Reduction Act funding.

A treasury official tells me a tiny fraction of the agency’s new hires, ~1%, would be for IRS Criminal Investigation Special Agents. In light of reports Inflation Reduction Act funding is going toward hiring IRS agents “legally allowed to carry a firearm” & “willing to use deadly force if necessary” –

ON THE WARRANT/RECEIPT: As it relates to reporting that agents were searching for nuclear-related documents, I’m told this property list gives little insight as to whether any were there. The property receipt shows the FBI took only one set of documents marked as various classified/top secret/sci (sensitive compartmented information)

SCI is the highest classification level that must be handled within formal access control systems established by the DNI

THREAD: A federal law enforcement source tells me probable cause for search warrant ‘very likely’ came from a secret service member. FROM MY SOURCE

To obtain a criminal search warrant, the government must identify 1) the specific item to be seized; 2) the specific location of that item; and 3) that specific item is at that specific location at that precise moment.

🚨NEW, thread : A senior administration official confirms to Fox that China and Russia flew nuclear-capable bombers through Sea of Japan, continuing through the East China Sea and the Philippine Sea – as President Biden attended a Quad leaders summit in Tokyo. A senior admin official tells me joint strategic. Bomber exercises such as this cannot be planned quickly, and was likely planned well in advance by both countries . Chinese naval vessels also likely participated, I’m told.

🚨NEW, exclusive, thread: Fox News exclusively obtained a letter from President Biden when he was VP in 2015, addressed to Ukrainian MP @hopkohanna – at the time, she was the chairwoman of the foreign affairs committee. Now, Hopko is releasing VP Biden’s 2015 letter along w/ her own letter to now-President Biden, signed by 71 female politicians, members of parliament, and public activists, imploring the US to “close the sky” or more children will die. @dkaleniuk

🚨Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines at House intel committee hearing:

HAINES: “Our analysts assess that Putin is unlikely to be deterred by such setbacks and instead may escalate, essentially doubling down to achieve Ukrainian disarmament.” DNI HAINES: We assess Putin feels aggrieved. The West does not give him proper deference and perceives this is a war he cannot afford to lose. But what he might be willing to accept as a victory may change over time, given the significant costs he is incurring.

🚨NEW, thread: Biden stalled bipartisan bill to ban Russian oil.

A source close to the process tells me that the House Ways and Means Committee worked all weekend in a bipartisan manner to develop a bill to ban all Russian oil imports... ... and also remove PNTR (permanent normalized trade relations) from Russia, meaning that they would lose ‘most favored nation status’ on tariffs – but the President himself intervened to stop it.

Ukraine defense/aid update:
- US is still working out details of how to get MiG’s from Poland to Ukraine, and backfill what the Poles give

- Ukraine is also seeking S300 missiles – Croatia, Bulgaria, Romania, & Slovakia have inventory they can give, discussions in the works. - S400 is the “dream scenario” – only Turkey has them, and Russia gave them to Turkey – seems unlikely

Ukraine also urgently wants more drones from Turkey – they already got some, but need more.
**Not sure what Turkey’s response to this is yet.

Per the Fox News brainroom, companies severing ties with Russia:
OIL & GAS: BP, Shell, TotalEnergies SE (France), Equinor ASA (Norway)

TRANSPORTATION & SHIPPING: MSC and Maersk, Volvo Car AB< GM, Daimler, Mercedez-Benz, Harley Davidson

cont'd... ENTERTAINMENT & TECH: Paramount Pictures, Disney, Meta, TikTok, Netflix, DirecTV, Apple

LEGAL SERVICES: Baker McKenzie, Linklaters