Just spoke with Sen. James Lankford about the GOP opposition to his border deal.

“I'm frustrated when people put out intentionally false information. I expect more. There are policy disagreements on that, I get that,” he said. “If people think that politics are wrong, and now we're in a presidential year, so let's not help Biden in the process, we're just going to disagree on that. I get frustrated when people put out things that are intentionally false, that they know are false, because I expect more of Americans.” Lankford: “It was funny for me just to be able to watch some of their conversation last night from members that I've talked to that have said to me, ‘Hey, I really need weeks to be able to review this. It's really complicated.’ And then within an hour they were coming out in opposition,” he said. “It was like, so much for the weeks I need to review it. I can tell now the weeks of review wasn't actually to review, it was just to try to kill it, stall it.”

New — Details of Senate deal on the border.

Sinema, Lankford, Murphy deal would empower US to significantly restrict border crossings if they surge to 5,000 daily average over a week. Same would apply for 8,500 crossings in a single day.

In essence, border would be effectively shut down now to migrants (not fleeing persecution and who are not entering at ports of entry) — as December saw more than 300K crossings.
- Also asylum process would be sped up to six months. There would still be a minimum of 14,000 asylum applications that could be processed though legal ports of entry while the emergency authorities are in effect.

Deal could be unveiled as soon as next week when more details will be unveiled.
Pressure will be on Senate Rs as Trump has urged them to kill deal as he campaigns on migrant surge but as they have called on the US to regain control of border

cnn.com/2024/01/26/pol… *1,400 asylum applications - not 14000

New — Matt Rosendale takes steps to run in #mtsen bid, likely setting up pivotal primary. He is courting Trump and went to MAL.

But GOP leaders — who worry he could cost them a seat — are saying he waited too long to back Trump.

Rosendale responds.

cnn.com/2023/12/22/pol… Daines: “Tim Sheehy endorsed President Trump in April. It’s a pretty late endorsement for Matt Rosendale,” Steve Daines, NRSC chairman said. “This time, he sees the inevitable that President Trump will be the nominee.”

Tommy Tuberville signals he’s backing down in blocking all military promotions. Signals next week will shift focus on blocking ones he considers “woke.” “Now, we’re working towards getting …. the promotions over with. We need to get them promoted,” he said, per @tedbarrettcnn Tuberville: “This started out as, obviously, abortion overreach and those things. Now, since we’ve had all this time, we’ve had different groups across Washington D.C. and the country that have evaluated all these military appointees,” he told reporters.

News -- Rep. Tim Burchett accuses Kevin McCarthy of a "sucker punch" to the kidneys and describes heated scene as he chased the former speaker down the hallway.

Said he's the type of the guy who as a kid would "hide behind his mama's skirt."
McCarthy denies it was intentional Burchett told me he’s still in pain from McCarthy’s elbow.

#BULLETIN: Former President Donald Trump has been indicted by a federal grand jury in the 2020 election interference probe. He now faces two federal criminal indictments and one NY criminal indictment, unprecedented for a former U.S. president Here are the four charges Trump is facing as he is ordered to appear in court on Thursday

Rep. Gerry Connolly told me the assailant -- who attacked two of his aides today -- did so with a metal bat. The attacker struck one senior aide in the head with the metal bat, he said. The attacker also hit an intern -- on her first day on the job -- on the side with the bat. The attacker, who is a constituent from his district but who Connolly says he doesn't know, caused wide damage in his office, shattering glass in a conference room and breaking computers along the way.

"He was filled with out of control rage," Connolly told CNN me

More GOP calls for George Santos to resign.
GOP Rep. Steve Womack told me “absolutely” that it would be better if George Santos resigned.
 
“We we don't need these distractions. That's the unfortunate thing,” Womack said. “This has been going on now since we took the majority.” Womack added: “Frankly I would have hoped along the way that Mr. Santos would have done what I believe was the right thing, and of course, if leadership forces action, but for him to do it on his own.”

News -- McConnell on Senate map and engaging in primaries
- Sees four states as key: OH, MT,
WV and PA (wants McCormick in)
- Still assessing WI, NV
- Likely to wait until after AZ primary to decide whether to spend there
- Doesn't see Sinema joining Rs
cnn.com/2023/05/08/pol… “No, no -- I'm not," McConnell said with a laugh when asked if he were confident they'd take back the majority next year. "I just spent 10 minutes explaining to you how we could screw this up, and we're working very hard to not let that happen. Let's put it that way."

“I hope that Chief Justice Roberts reads this story this morning and understands something has to be done,” Dick Durbin told us of ProPublica story. “The reputation of the Supreme Court is at stake here. ..His reputation as a leader of this court is really an issue as well.” Durbin didn’t think it rose to a DOJ probe. And he said that Feinstein’s absence makes moving ahead on ethics legislation more difficult.

“It's difficult, particularly because the Republicans have basically taken the position that they are opposed to this.”

Despite the new warning that a US debt default could occur on June 1, there is no movement in the Senate

Senate Republicans said there should be no deal without McCarthy’s blessing and Dems insisted there should be no spending cuts tied to debt ceiling — a chief McCarthy demand. Thune told me there isn’t a scenario where the Senate GOP would cut a deal with Democrats without consent from McCarthy.

“This deal has got to be between Biden and McCarthy. There’s no other way that something gets 60 votes in the Senate.”

Marjorie Taylor Greene told me she was “surprised and angered” when Chairman Mark Green effectively silenced her at a hearing after she called Mayorkas “a liar.” She already spoke to McCarthy who told her he backs her up.

“He agreed with me,” Greene said of McCarthy. MTG also said McCarthy would never agree to pulling her off the committee.

“Speaker McCarthy is never going to let that happen,” she said.

Some pushback from GOP senators this AM after McCarthy gave Tucker Carlson J6 footage and the Fox host sought to downplay attack. “To somehow put that in the same category as a permitted peaceful protest is just a lie,” Sen. Kevin Cramer told me. “I think it’s bullshit,” Thom Tillis told me of how Tucker Carlson portrayed the events and he also criticized how other violent demonstrations have been portrayed in press.
On J6, Tillis said: “And I saw maybe a few tourists, a few people who got caught up and things…

Sen. Mitt Romney, leaving a classified briefing on China, told us he believes the US made the right decision to wait and shoot down the suspected spy balloon — breaking with most Republicans. “I believe that the administration, the president, our military and intelligence agencies, acted skillfully and with care. At the same time, their capabilities are extraordinarily impressive,” Romney said.

During tense House briefing, Biden administration officials defend US response to balloon and say Chinese gleaned little new intelligence. Sources say that the U.S. officials argued that more info was gained by US intelligence from the shot-down balloon US officials told House members that that Chinese appeared to stop transmitting to the mainland once the US learned of the balloon. Also, the US has protocols to protect its sensitive intelligence in case of such spying operations and implemented those protocols.

Dan Crenshaw teeing off this morning on the bloc of hardliners seeking McCarthy’s ouster. Calls them “enemies” and “narcissists.” “They are enemies now. They have made it clear that they prefer a Democrat agenda than a Republican,” he told me “This handful of members is very clearly looking for notoriety over principle. That's what it is. And anyone who suggests differently is in some kind of make believe fantasy reality. It's not, it's not true,” he said, adding: “They lost those debates.”

A key takeaway from Democrats is that the IRS mandatory presidential audit of Trump taxes was not followed. They said the IRS began the audit once Chairman Neal inquired in April 2019 about Trump’s returns. The audits of the requested returns were never completed I asked Neal if the IRS explained why, and he indicated they didn’t. I also asked him about Trump’s claim that he could never release returns bc he was constantly under audit.

"I can't comment on that specifically because we're still under the speech and debate clause.”

GOP Sen. John Thune, the No. 2 Republican, to me on their 2022 problems: “A lot of the candidates who had problems in these elections were running on the 2020 election being stolen and I don't think independent voters were having it.” Thune on Trump’s impact: “Well he was of course very active in the primaries and even in the general election because he was a presence out there 
and in an election year where it should have been a referendum on the current administration and their policies.”

I just asked McConnell about criticism that his decision not to have an election-year agenda exposed the GOP to attacks. He pushed back. “We underperformed among independents and moderates because their impression of many of the people in our party and leadership roles is that … “…. they’re engulfed in chaos, negativity and excessive attacks, and it frightened independent and moderate Republican voters. … We had national issue set that was favorable, but as a result of our own, the perception many of them had that we were not dealing with issues…

Sen. Rick Scott and GOP Leader Mitch McConnell engaged in a tense back-and-forth where they criticized each other as the two men addressed Senate Republicans in a tense three-hour meeting, according to multiple senators. “Senator Scott disagrees with the approach that Mitch has taken in this election and for the last couple of years, and he made that clear and Senator McConnell criticized Senator Scott's management of the NRSC,” Sen. Josh Hawley told us

New CNN polling
Fetterman 51%
Oz 45%

Shapiro 55%
Mastriano 44%

Johnson 50%
Barnes 49%

Evers 50%
Michels 48%

Whitmer 52%
Dixon 46%

cnn.com/2022/10/24/pol… Wisconsin secretary of state race
La Follette 49%
Loudenbeck 48%

Michigan SOS
Benson 51%
Karamo 47%