Uncertainty Over Fate Of 'Dreamers' Parents, Another Dem Upset Victory, And A Failed FEMA Contract For Puerto Rico

February 7th, 2018 Top Stories --------------------------------------------------------------- [Immigration Talks Stymied By Question Of What To Do About ‘Dreamers’ Parents]( The Gist: The Senate is slated to begin a floor debate early next week on some kind of an immigration bill, though what exactly will be included in that bill remains a mystery. Lawmakers meeting nearly every day to hammer out a compromise say they have yet to reach consensus on any piece of the puzzle, from how many young immigrants known as Dreamers will be granted a path to citizenship to how much funding will go to building new walls on the U.S.-Mexico border. Amid this tangle of issues, several senators have told TPM, one piece has emerged as particularly difficult: the status of Dreamers’ parents. [Another Dem Pulls Off A Big Upset In State Legislative Race]( The Gist: Democrats have pulled off another surprising special election upset in a deep-red district, this time capturing a Missouri statehouse seat that President Trump easily carried in 2016. [Gowdy Floats Theory That Dems Set Trump Up To Redact Parts Of Their Memo]( The Gist: Now that the White House is poised to approve the release of Democrats’ memo rebutting the controversial Republican-drafted memo from the House Intelligence Committee alleging abuses of the surveillance process by top Justice Department and FBI officials, Republicans in Congress are working to undermine the Democratic memo. From The Reporter's Notebook --------------------------------------------------------------- As TPM's Sam Thielman continued his reporting on the National Rifle Association's ties to Russian politicians, [he ran into something unusual this week]( A list of "honorary members" at a group called The Right to Bear Arms run by Putin favorite Vladimir Torshin. TPM spoke to one of the members, a polite American photographer named Oleg Volk in Tennessee, who told us not only that he had been given his membership in the Russian group by Torshin himself and RtBA founder Maria Butina, but that he believed Butina had been chased out of the group she founded with threats of malicious prosecution. She was, Volk said, not the right public face for a group that includes "bogeyman" Russian senator Vladimir Zhirinovsky. Agree Or Disagree? --------------------------------------------------------------- Josh Marshall: "We don’t yet know what, if anything, Donald Trump is guilty of. We largely know on the obstruction front. The 'collusion' front is much less clear. But all the evidence we have suggests a professional and if anything quite cautious investigation, one run from first to last by Republicans and on critical fronts by Donald Trump’s own nominees and appointees. The entirety of the 'Deep State' anti-Trump bias storyline is no more than fakery and lies designed to cover up Trump’s misdeeds. It’s an effort that every member of the Republican party, up to its highest leaders like Paul Ryan, have made themselves party to. Yet none of it amounts to more than a big lie, [The Big Lie](. It’s just something repeated over and over to give it an appearance of verisimilitude even though it’s simply a lie concocted to defend President Trump at any cost." Say What?! --------------------------------------------------------------- "We are not advocating for the shutdown." - White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders [saying]( on Tuesday that President Donald Trump isn’t advocating for a government shutdown despite Trump declaring hours earlier that he'd "love to see a shutdown” if his demands weren’t met. BUZZING: Today in the Hive --------------------------------------------------------------- From a TPM Prime member: "Not a chance that Trump will talk to Mueller. If Mueller subpoenas him, he will simply flout the subpoena. I even wonder if he will challenge it in court or if he'll just launch into constitutional crisis that in any event is his gameplan. Either way, Trump will seek to discredit Mueller in the most confrontational and extreme way possible. He perhaps feels that he doesn't even need to fire Mueller any more, so far gone is he in his campaign to discredit him. I really don't know what the big mystery here is. There will be a constitutional crisis because the alternative for Trump is existentially negative." Related: [What Happens If Trump Refuses To Be Interviewed By Mueller?]( Have something to add? Become a [Prime]( member and join the discussion [here](. What We're Reading --------------------------------------------------------------- FEMA Contract Called For 30 Million Meals For Puerto Ricans. 50,000 Were Delivered ([The New York Times]( Girl Scout Sells 300 Boxes Of Cookies Outside A California Marijuana Dispensary ([Mashable]( [unsubscribe from this list]( | [update subscription preferences]( | [view email in browser](