the president in 2019. there s no honeymoon for a new congressman roughly a quarter of the federal government shutdown, as soon as the new members are sworn in on thursday, the house will vote on the democrats plan to reopen the government. it includes $1.3 billion for border security but no funding for a wall. the democrats do not want to give donald trump a win at any price. their whole objective is to see him defeated in 2020. democrats are just days away from controlling the house for the first time in eight years. its new leader will almost certainly be congresswoman nancy pelosi. not only will she be battling president trump and other republicans, she will also have to deal with the influx of far left freshman, none more prominent than alexandria ocasio-cortez who has already shown she s not afraid to disagree with democratic leader by joining environmental activists protesting right outside pelosi s office. i want to let you know how proud i am of each and every
the hawkeye state is the home of the first in the nation caucuses. new year, new boss overseeing the u.s. military. james mattis handed over the reins at the pentagon to his former deputy he is a 30-year veteran of the aerospace giant boeing. as our correspondent lucas tomlinson report, new acting defense secretary has little time for on-the-job training. the north korean leader is already sending a blunt message. jim mattis stepped down as defense chief without a ceremony. instead, he transferred power to his deputy, patrick shanahan, over the phone. in his first statement to the forces on new year s day, the former boeing executive wrote as acting secretary of defense, i now look forward to working with president trump to carry out his vision alongside strong leaders, including the service secretaries, the joint chiefs of staff, the combatant commanders and senior personnel in the office of the secretary of defense. syria looms large in the months ahead for shanahan, were just a
in his first message to the forces shanahan said as acting secretary of defense i look forward to working with president trump to carry out his vision alongside strong leaders, including the service secretaries, joint chiefs of staff, the combatant commanders and senior personnel in the office of the secretary of defense. one of the biggest threats he faces is china who celebrated 2019 with a flag raising in beijing. china continued to test missiles last year including the launch of a new type of ballistic missile from a submarine in november. experts say the u.s. must spend more on defense to keep pace. the author of a block buser report issued last year america reached the point of a full blown national security crisis and risks losing to china and russia in a war. the pentagon would merely be treading water if they got the $700 billion or $733 billion to add varns and make the progress that the strategy calls for. they need to get that $750
rather welcome. mattis could do it all. the mattis/shanahan team was stronger. leland: is there anybody else at the pentagon who is perhaps not as well-known of a name but fills the mattis role you re saying is now gone in terms of institutional knowledge of the military in terms of knowledge of history, in terms of policy versus important curement of a technology? i m a fan of general joe dunford in office for nine more months, extremely good himself and john rude, a well recognized name. he does broader foreign policy aspects. and the thing is they ll be very good in their own lanes. they won t have the larger than life presence or influence with the president that i think mattis had, at least for the first year and a half or so of
both sides will start feeling it pretty soon. leland: this from the wall street journal. a way out of the shutdown from the editorial board it says here. with the partial government shutdown donald trump appears to have no good exit strategy. not surprising since he had no entry strategy. what is the exit strategy if the democrats are saying we won t give you money for the wall? what does he get and how does he spin it so that at some point if it reaches the inflection point you re talking about we can take the compromise? if we ve learned anything about president trump since he has been in office he is a master salesman to his own political base. he can call a loss a win and vice versa even if somehow a measure does get through. leland: i haven t heard him call a win a loss. i think that would be a new one for him. fair enough. he is very good with words. if somehow a bill became a law that did not include funding,