SHAHEEN: It's been reported that the oil sold for $500 million and $300 million went to Venezuelan government. What happened to the other $200 million?

RUBIO: It's still sitting in the account is my understanding

SHAHEEN: The account in Qatar?

RUBIO: Yes

Oil proceeds are going into a private account in Qatar that US Treasury cannot block. The entire arrangement is grotesquely illegal and corrupt. Rubio's answers are dissembling. And we can't seemingly even get intelligent questions for him. bsky.app/profile/atru...

RUBIO: U.S. IS NOT SPENDING ANY MONEY IN VENEZUELA NOW, EXCEPT FOR COST OF SETTING UP AN EMBASSY

RUBIO SAYS U.S. MADE 'MULTIPLE ATTEMPTS' TO GET MADURO TO LEAVE VENEZUELA VOLUNTARILY, BUT 'HE IS NOT A GUY YOU CAN MAKE A DEAL WITH'

It is vitally important that Democrats (and the media) frame this properly. If the government gets shutdown it is because the GOP insists on DHS, ICE and CBP continuing to occupy American cities and trample the rights of US citizens.

More and more Americans are voicing their outrage at the tactics being deployed by federal agents in Minnesota. But it’s important to understand the broader implications of what this administration is doing, and the threat it poses to the basic freedoms of every American.

The Secretary of Homeland Security is asserting that the Deputy White House Chief of Staff ultimately bears responsibility for the murder of two American citizens, which is something that would normally generate a dozen congressional inquiries.

Mamdani: "I said to the president directly that these ICE raids are cruel & do nothing to actually serve the interests of public safety. Public safety is of paramount importance to us. But to use it as a justification to pull people out of their cars, out of their homes, out of their lives ... "

Breaking news: The Wall Street benchmark has climbed above 7,000 points for the first time on Wednesday, as stocks recoup sharp losses triggered by Donald Trump’s tariff threats over Greenland. ft.trib.al/HLPWDpG

The Fed meeting, Starbucks earnings, Amazon layoffs and more in Morning Squawk Here are five key things investors need to know to start the trading day.

The Fed meeting, Starbucks earnings, Amazon layoffs and more in Morning Squawk

lmfao

More “pivot to China” coverage — as Starmer becomes the first British PM to visit in eight years.

@reuters.com 🇬🇧
www.reuters.com/sustainabili...

Screenshot of TruthSocial post by President Trump complaining that Mayor Frey won't enforce federal immigration law, and calling it a "very serious violation of the Law."

In Printz v. United States, #SCOTUS held that the Constitution bars the federal government from forcing or otherwise compelling local or state governments to enforce federal law.

The liberal squish who wrote the majority opinion in that case? Justice Antonin Scalia:

tile.loc.gov/storage-serv...

actually polling shows they want to abolish ICE

Trump’s fundraisers are now using the threat of dispatching ICE against citizens as an email engagement tactic.

Trump continues to lie and incite violence against Rep. Ilhan Omar: "I think she's a fraud ... she probably had herself sprayed, knowing her."

Noem auditioning her inevitable legal defense

Rand Paul: "When people watch that video and the government tells them, 'Well, he was assaulting the police officers,' nobody with any objectivity believes that. No American believes he was assaulting the officers. In fact, the opposite appears to be true. So we have to get some rules of the game."

Rand Paul: "There has to be an investigation. I don't know who trusts an investigation done by DHS when they're the ones calling this person an 'assassin,' a 'domestic terrorist,' saying he was assaulting police. How can they be in charge of an independent investigation? Something's got to happen."

Rand Paul on ICE: "I don't want to defund ICE, but I'm not sure I want to give them billions and billions more without any signs of there will be rules of the game and there will be an independent investigation"

Donald Trump Is Frightened Trump wants to appear eager to minimize out-of-control clashes between government militias and protesters. But he doesn’t want to stop the things causing those clashes in the first place.

I'm calling bullshit on the media narrative that Trump is "pivoting" and "deescalating" on his ICE raids. The threshold is this: As long as the military occupations and the treatment of US cities as enemy territory continue, there's no pivot. ICE out. 1/

(New piece)
newrepublic.com/article/2057...

Eyewitness says she has not even been contacted by federal investigators

Minnesota needs impartial investigations, the departure of federal forces, and an end to the campaign of retribution against our state.

I’m ok. I’m a survivor so this small agitator isn’t going to intimidate me from doing my work.

I don’t let bullies win.

Grateful to my incredible constituents who rallied behind me. Minnesota strong.

Imagine watching the president declare an entire African community unworthy of the American dream, while readily granting asylum to only white South Africans, and still believing this is about solving our immigration issues.

‘We all have to be brave’: Meet the woman whose video of Alex Pretti’s killing contradicted the administration’s claims | CNN Stella Carlson had no way of knowing Saturday that she would soon watch a man die — or that her video of that fatal incident would serve as a crucial counter to the Trump administration’s initial effo...

CNN interviews the 'woman in the pink jacket,' aka Stella Carlson: www.cnn.com/2026/01/27/u...

REPUBLICAN @SenThomTillis rips Noem & Stephen Miller — He says @KristiNoem is ignoring her job and the Trump regime isn’t helping Americans with disaster relief, and Stephen Miller “never fails to live up to my expectations of incompetence”

(From CNN)

Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., rolls out his demand for supporting a DHS appropriations bill: fire Stephen Miller

Le Monde's cartoon of the day, by Marco De Angelis.

Man sprays unknown substance on Rep. Ilhan Omar and is tackled at Minneapolis town hall A man sprayed an unknown substance on Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar and was tackled to the ground Tuesday during a town hall she was hosting in Minneapolis, where tensions over federal immigration e...

I’m glad that Congresswoman Omar is safe.

Our state has been shattered by political violence in the last year. The cruel, inflammatory, dehumanizing rhetoric by our nation’s leaders needs to stop immediately.

www.startribune.com/man-tackled-...