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Here's what you missed this weekend: backlash continues from BuzzFeed report on Trump and Cohen, clash at DC march develops, Cardi B dives back into politics
Here's what you missed this weekend: backlash continues from BuzzFeed report on Trump and Cohen, clash at DC march develops, Cardi B dives back into politics
Ellen Cranley,Ellen CranleyJan 22, 2019, 05:57 IST
President Donald Trump walks on the South Lawn upon arrival at the White House in Washington, Saturday, Jan. 19, 2019, after attending the casualty return at Dover Air Force Base, Del., for the four Americans killed in a suicide bomb attack in Syria.(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
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The partial shutdown of the federal government entered its fifth week.
Though much of America took a break to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Monday, several stories from the weekend continued to develop.
As the partial shutdown of the federal government reached its 31st day, President Donald Trump's "major announcement" for negotiations fell flat, social media erupted over an apparent confrontation in Washington DC, and Cardi B entered the arena of political commentary.
Even after a much-teased "major announcement" Saturday, Trump couldn't entice Democrats back to the negotiating table.
In Trump's "major announcement," he offered Democrats a deal combining temporary protection for so-called "Dreamers" and other immigration proposals in exchange for funding for his border wall.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pointed out the idea "is a compilation of several previously rejected initiatives, each of which is unacceptable and in total, do not represent a good faith effort to restore certainty to people's lives."
In a series of tweets posted the next day, Trump took aim at Democrats' rejection of the "compromise," a label critics say isn't justified by its proposed policies.
Videos of a group of high schoolers and a Native American protestor in Washington, DC, Friday sparked a weekend of confusion among reports and social media outrage.
The story first caught fire as videos were shared on social media, with many users leveling accusations and insults at the high-school aged group, which was shown smiling and chanting while a Native American man beat his drum.
Despite initial condemnations, extended video footage released days after the incident cast a new light on the apparent standoff.
Covington Catholic High School student Nick Sandmann, the student filmed standing directly in front of Phillips, said in a statement that while the group was waiting for buses to leave the March for Life, he heard a group of black Hebrew Israelites "direct derogatory insults at our school group."
Sandmann said he felt the need to speak out and correct "outright lies" he had seen based on the video. He also said he had received multiple death threats.
Sandmann's account has been contradicted by other other eyewitness accounts.
Rudy Giuliani lead the White House's defense after a bombshell BuzzFeed News report.
A BuzzFeed News report published Friday was said to based on information from federal law enforcement officials and claimed that Trump had directed his former personal lawyer and "fixer" Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about the timing of negotiations over a potential Trump Tower in Moscow.
The report prompted unprecedented responses from the administration in addition to special counsel Robert Mueller, who issued a public rebuke of the report, though his office didn't specify which points he was questioning.
Trump's top attorney Rudy Giuliani waved off the widespread response to what he called a "phony" report, which he described as "hysteria" among the media covering the investigations into the Trump administration.
Vice President Mike Pence echoed Giuliani's dismissal, saying Democratic lawmakers who saw the report as grounds for impeachment if true were affected by "hyper-partisanship."
In his Sunday appearance and in comments to outlets the next day, Giuliani wove a confusing web about Cohen and Trump's contact.
Cardi B tangled with conservative commentator Tomi Lahren on Twitter in her latest instance of political commentary.
Lahren tweeted last week to seemingly respond to a video the rapper posted criticizing the partial shutdown of the federal government.
Replying to Lahren's sarcastic comment that Cardi is the "latest genius political mind to endorse the Democrats," the rapper wrote, "Leave me alone I will dog walk you."
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez jumped in later to defend Cardi, who is also from New York.
"Why do people think they can mess with Bronx women without getting roasted? They act as though our borough hasn’t been perfecting the clapback game since the Sugarhill Gang ?? y’all just found it on Twitter," the congresswoman wrote.
This wasn't the rapper's first appearance in political discourse, as she has previously discussed gun control and social security reform in interviews and on social media.
The partial shutdown of the federal government reached day 31.
Approximately 800,000 federal workers have now faced an entire month without paychecks.
Trump's State of the Union is still up in the air, and likely won't help his popularity, even if it happens.
A White House official told INSIDER last week that the administration expected the shutdown to deduct 0.13 percentage points from quarterly economic growth for every week that the government was closed.
Martin Luther King Jr. Day served as a nationwide reminder of a civil rights icon.
Trump and Pence made an unannounced visit to the memorial in Washington, DC for a few minutes. First daughter Ivanka appeared to also have visited the site, posting a photo of what appeared to be her young son in front of King's statue.
