In the News
More information has come to light about the direct U.S. role in an attempted coup in Venezuela. The Wall Street Journal reports Vice President Mike Pence called opposition leader Juan Guaidó on the night before he declared himself to be president, pledging U.S. support for his actions. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has accused the United States of attempting to wage a coup. Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has named Elliott Abrams to be his special envoy to Venezuela.
House Democrats are renewing their push to cut off U.S. involvement in Yemen's bloody civil war, teeing up a direct challenge to President Donald Trump's foreign-policy agenda.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) told POLITICO on Monday that he planned to reintroduce a War Powers resolution in the coming days, and the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), indicated that his panel would make the issue a top priority.
The California Democrat has been named to several key congressional committees, including Armed Services and Budget.
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-California, has come up with a plan to open the federal government and end the ongoing crisis. The congressman has urged President Trump and both chambers of Congress to appoint outside negotiators in order to reach a budget agreement to end the impasse.
The White House on Thursday said that the US is focussed on disconnecting the regime of hard-left President Nicolas Maduro from its revenue sources, a day after President Donald Trump recognised Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido as the country's interim president.
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The U.S. House of Representatives now contains two democratic socialists – and both will now sit on the House Oversight Committee. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Representative Rashida Tlaib of Michigan will join the committee, alongside progressives Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Ro Khanna of California. All but Khanna are freshman Democrats.
Amazon has become a recurring symbol of economic inequality for newly emboldened progressive Democrats.
Why it matters: Despite its popularity with consumers, the company already shows up in fundraising appeals, legislative rollouts and Twitter threads — and looms over the 2020 campaign trail.
Driving the news:
Not too many years ago, hardly anybody in Washington wanted to regulate the Internet. Suddenly, almost everybody does — or claims to.
For decades, Internet companies were sheltered by a bipartisan consensus: Regulate with a light touch, and see what happens.
The results have been extraordinary. Facebook and Google are now among the world's biggest companies. However, their actions also have subjected millions of users to the threat of identity theft and loss of privacy, and record fines by the US government for privacy-related violations.
Progressive Congressman Ro Khanna, D-California, is proposing a solution to try to end the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. He says the White House and congressional leaders could appoint outside negotiators to broker a budget agreement and end the gridlock.
Khanna's proposal would involve President Trump appointing two representatives to hold talks with four congressional negotiators, two appointed by the Democratic-controlled House and two appointed by the Republican-controlled Senate. Then they'd look for common ground all six could agree on.
In Syria, a suicide bomber struck a restaurant in the northern city of Manbij Wednesday, killing 19 people including four Americans. Two of them were U.S. soldiers. The bombing was claimed by ISIS and came just weeks after President Trump declared victory over the group and ordered U.S. troops to withdraw from Syria, prompting the resignation of Pentagon chief Jim Mattis. Just hours after the attack, Vice President Mike Pence reiterated that ISIShas been defeated.
California Rep. Ro Khanna has a novel idea about how to solve the government shutdown: call in some experts.
"Why don't we get an independent group of experts? The president appoints two people. The House appoints two people. The Senate appoints two people," the Silicon Valley-based Democrat suggested. "Put them in a room ー six folks ー and have them come up with proposals that are going to be 6-0."