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Senate Democrats to Unveil $1 Trillion Infrastructure Plan New York Times Senate Democrats will unveil a $1 trillion infrastructure plan and offer President Trump their support if he backs it. Mr. Trump has invited Senate leaders and the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee to the White House ... Senate Democrats unveil a Trump-size infrastructure planWashington Post Senate Democrats Propose $1 Trillion Infrastructure PlanABC News Democrats to Unveil Massive $1 Trillion Infrastructure Plan. Will Trump Bite?Slate Magazine (blog) Business Insider -New York Magazine all 196 news articles »

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Senate Democrats to Unveil $1 Trillion Infrastructure Plan - New York Times

FourteenSenate Democrats joined all but one Senate Republican in confirming Rep. Mike Pompeo as the new CIA director on Monday evening, failing a crucial first test of whether Democrats would present a united front to defend human rights and civil liberties in the Trump era.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., was the lone member of his party to voteagainst his confirmation.

Pompeo is a far-right Kansas Republican who has in the past defended CIA officials who engaged in torture, calling them patriots. Last week, he left the door open to torture by acknowledging in his written responses to the Senate Intelligence Committee that he would be open to altering a 2015 law prohibiting the government from usingtechniques notlisted in the Army Field Manual.

Asa member of Congress, he repeatedly appearedon the radio program hosted by anti-Muslim activist Frank Gaffney, and has portrayed the war on terror as a conflict between Islam and Christianity. He has also claimedthatIslamic leaders across America [are] potentially complicit in terrorism because they supposedly dont speak out against it, which is not true.

While Pompeos confirmation was opposed by Human Rights Watch, itnetted votes from a variety of Senate Democrats, including the caucus leader:Chuck Schumer of New York.

In addition to his stances on torture and Islam, Pompeo has also come under fire for his views on surveillance. In a 2016op-edin the Wall Street Journal, he attacked a2015 law that that hevoted for, which endedthe bulk collection on phone records by the NSA. The op-ed calls onthe government to collectall metadata and lifestyle details on Americans.

The CIA is prohibited by executive orderfrom conducting electronic surveillanceinside the United States. But the specific rules and policies governing CIA surveillance aresecret and can be reinterpreted without public debate. Despite a push for transparency following the revelations in documents from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, the Obama administration did not declassify a secret legal opinionabout the CIAs collection of financialrecords. And days before President Trump took office, the Obama administration issued new rules that would allow the CIA to sift through much of the raw data the NSA collects on Americans.

In his confirmation hearing, Pompeo tried to assure Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., that there were legal boundaries tocompiling dossiers on Americans, but that the government would be grossly negligent to ignorepublicly available information.

On the Senate floor Monday, Wyden called Pompeo the wrong man for the job.

On issue after issue, Wyden said the congressman has taken two, three, or four positions, depending on when he says it and who he is talking to. He has done this with surveillance, with torture, with Russia, and a number of other subjects.

He added: Congressman Pompeo does not seem familiar with the broad consensus that torture, in addition to being illegal, immoral and contrary to our national values, does not work.

But Virginia Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, the ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, said on the floor that although he does not agree with some of the views that Congressman Pompeo holds, he convinced me that he will follow the law banning torture.

Margaret Huang, executive director of Amnesty International USA,called the confirmation votea clear sign that Congress has not done enough extreme vetting of President Trumps nominees views on human rights.

She continued: While Pompeo sailed through his confirmation hearing, his written answers to the Senate contradict his earlier testimony and could lay the groundwork for the agency to return to torture and secret detention. Torture is a war crime and a grave human rights violation.

The Democrats who voted to confirm Pompeo were:

Angus King, the independent from Maine who caucuses with Democrats, also voted in favor of Pompeos confirmation.

Connecticut Democrats Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy did not vote.

Top photo: Pompeo at his confirmation hearing on Jan. 12, 2017, in Washington, D.C.

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14 Senate Democrats Fall in Line Behind Trump CIA Pick Who Left Door Open to Torture - The Intercept

Cenk Uygur, founder of the Young Turksvideo network that has become virally popular among progressive voters, is launching a project called Justice Democrats to defeat members of the Democratic Party who have cast votes seen as unacceptable.

The aim in 2018 is to put a significant number of Justice Democrats in the Congress. The aim for 2020 is to more significantly take over the Democratic Party,Uygursaid. If they're going to continue to be corporate Democrats, that's doomed for failure for the rest of time.

Justice Democrats cohered after the 2016 election, when Uygur began talking to veterans of the presidential campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) about ways to challenge Democrats from the left. The Justice Democrats project counts Saikat Chakrabarti and Zack Exley, two tech veterans of the Sanders campaign, among its founders; their first goal was to provide the infrastructure and resources for progressives who wanted to challenge corporate Democrats.

In the near term, that meant finding people who could run against the 13 Democratic senators who opposed a Sanders-backed measure to make it easier to import prescription drugs from Canada.

Some members of the party that are already in the Progressive Caucus, we're unlikely to primary. We want to focus on getting strong progressives into Congress, Uygur said. What's the point of primarying Representative Ral Grijalva [D-Ariz.] if you want to do that? There will be a small number of people who ran once before, and we can look at them again. But do we want to challenge Senator Cory Booker [D-N.J.]? That's a no-brainer.

The Justice Democrats platform mirrors much of what Sanders ran on, some of which had been adopted into the 2016 Democratic platform. Where Sanders called for renegotiating trade deals, the platform doubles down. Democrats have called for infrastructure spending; the platform calls for the party to invest billions in rebuilding our crumbling roads, bridges, schools, levees, airports etc. It goes even further than Sanders, however, in asking candidates to ban foreign aid to human rights violators.

All of that builds on what had been a time of expansion for the Young Turks. After the election, the site crowdfunded nearly $1 million to expand its team and roster of contributors. The Justice Democrats would follow the same model.

I was hoping someone else would do this, but when no one else was, Uygur said, somebody had to do it.

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Progressives launch 'Justice Democrats' to counter party's 'corporate' legislators - Washington Post

New York Times

Angry Democrats Study the Tea Party's Playbook New York Times Eight years after Republicans united after a stinging electoral defeat to oppose President Barack Obama, Democrats are channeling an even deeper anxiety over President Trump and a far shallower defeat into a newfound burst of organizing. Democrats see hope in women's marches but wonder what comes nextWashington Post Democrats' Response To President Trump Proves No Lessons LearnedForbes Senate Votes Put Pressure on These 12 Vulnerable DemocratsDaily Signal National Review -The Atlantic all 224 news articles »

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Angry Democrats Study the Tea Party's Playbook - New York Times

SACRAMENTO, Calif. For a generation of ambitious Democrats, its an almost intoxicating prize: the opportunity to serve as governor of the largest state in the nation and, along with it, become President Donald TrumpDonald TrumpTop Dem: Trump's falsehoods will hurt relations with Congress Trump bans EPA employees from giving social media updates Mexican official: We could leave NAFTA if there are no clear benefits MOREs No. 1 foil.

But even as some of the states best-known politicians begin campaigning for the right to replace term-limited Gov. Jerry Brown (D), they are coming to grips with a new California primary system where the top two vote getters will advance to the general election, regardless of party.

This is uncharted territory in the governors race, said Garry South, a longtime Los Angeles-based Democratic strategist. With the top two, you dont have to finish first. You can finish second, and youre still off to the races.

Already, three prominent Democrats Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, state Treasurer John Chiang and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa are vying for those top two slots. The field is likely to grow: Billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer and state Senate President Kevin de Len are considering bids, and current Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, who is running for reelection in March, has not ruled out a run.

The few public polls that have been conducted show Newsom in the drivers seat. A Field Poll conducted in November showed Newsom taking 23 percent; no other Democrat topped double figures. Two Republicans who have not entered the race, San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and former Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin, came in with 16 percent and 11 percent, respectively.

Not always a good place to start, Newsom said of being the front-runner. Thats nice, but not something to hang your hat on.

Conventional, if counterintuitive, wisdom in California holds that a Democrat with a political base in the San Francisco Bay Area holds an edge over a Democrat from the more populous Los Angeles area. Bay Area voters turn out at higher percentages and vote more reliably Democratic than Angeleno voters.

But in an unconventional race, the leading contenders are spending their early days wooing voters outside their natural constituencies. Newsom took 84 trips to Southern California in 2016, while Villaraigosa has already spent more than a month campaigning in the Central Valley and the Inland Empire, some of the last Republican bastions in the state.

Historically, neither Democrats or Republicans spend a whole lot of time in the Central Valley or the Inland Empire, Villaraigosa said in an interview. Long before the November election, in the parts of the state where I had an opportunity to visit, it was clear that people are struggling and looking for jobs, concerned about the future. They feel like the economy isnt working for them.

Newsom, too, said it was incumbent on him to reach beyond his existing base: The race will be won or lost on my ability our ability to successfully broaden our appeal in the southern part of the state.

The leading candidates are carving out early niches for themselves.

Newsom, who backed same-sex marriage long before it was popular even among Democrats, and who supported a ballot measure to legalize marijuana for recreational uses, is positioning himself as the liberal favorite. The California Nurses Association, which backed Sen. Bernie SandersBernie SandersDems unveil infrastructure plan, reach out to Trump Sanders: Trump ignored millions by moving forward with pipelines The Hill's 12:30 Report MORE (I-Vt.) in the Democratic presidential primary, is behind him.

I do think that the Bernie base will go with Gavin, said RoseAnn DeMoro, head of the Nurses Association.

Villaraigosa, a former union organizer himself, is casting himself as the experienced government executive who gets things done for blue-collar constituents. He is also the only Hispanic candidate in the race so far, a key factor in a state where minorities make up a majority of registered voters.

That community is growing, and growing quickly, said Eric Jaye, Villaraigosas chief strategist.

Chiang has less of a geographic base, though as state treasurer, he has tried to appear as the progressive but fiscally prudent heir to Browns legacy. Chiang is being bolstered by the increasingly influential community of Asian-American politicians and donors in the state.

Almost a year and a half before the primary, plenty of wildcards remain. Garcetti has not ruled out a run; in Washington last week, the Los Angeles mayor told The Hill he is only focused on his reelection bid this March.

Steyer, who spent $87 million on behalf of Democratic candidates in 2016, has yet to make up his mind. Self-funding candidates often fare poorly in California politics the most recent example is Meg Whitman, who lost the governorship after spending $144 million of her own money in 2010 but Steyer has gone out of his way to introduce himself to voters, both through his environmental activism and by backing a ballot measure to raise taxes on cigarettes in 2016.

Somebody who gets identified as being a total self-funder with very limited political experience, or none, looks opportunistic. That model has been universally a disaster, said Bill Carrick, a Los Angeles-based Democratic strategist. Tom has really worked very hard to make sure people understand he didnt wake up one morning and decide to run for public office.

But in an interview, Steyer sounded less certain of his own future than he had been before Novembers elections, when Donald Trump won the White House.

I said Im going to wait untilNov. 8with the full expectation that the decision [to run for governor] would be made under President-elect Clinton, Steyer told The Hill. The world did not play out onNov. 8the way I expected it to, and I want to make sure whatever I do is well considered and responds to the reality of whats going on.

The final wild card is the weak California Republican Party. If the party is able to line up behind one candidate, that contender has a strong chance of making the runoff. If the field is divided among several candidates, as it was during the 2016 race to replace retiring Sen. Barbara BoxerBarbara BoxerTop Obama adviser signs with Hollywood talent agency: report Democrats vie for chance to take on Trump as California governor Feinstein to hold campaign fundraisers, a hint she'll run again MORE (D), an all-Democratic runoff becomes more plausible.

Faulconer, the popular mayor of San Diego, is the only Republican who startles Democrats, several party strategists said. (The last Republican governor to win a regularly scheduled election, Pete Wilson, was also the mayor of San Diego.) Billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel, a prominent Trump backer, is also said to be considering a bid, though few in California believe he will run.

Though Californias next governor will take office in 2019, he or she is almost certain to become an immediate force on the national landscape. Brown and California Democratic leaders have already set themselves up as bulwarks against Trumps administration, and the next governor is likely to be seen as a potential presidential candidate.

This will be the most followed race in 2018, particularly with the election of Donald Trump, Villaraigosa predicted. People are going to be a lot more interested in the governors race in California, in no small part because California has charted a dramatically different path. Much of what President Obama tried to do and wanted to do, weve been doing.

The California governor will always play an outsized role, Newsom said. Thats our history. And its not just in our rearview mirror. I think its in our windshield.

Despite that outsized role, the next governor faces historical headwinds if he or she opts for a national run: The Democratic Party has never nominated a candidate from a state farther west than Texas. Even Brown, the seemingly undisputed king of California politics, failed to win his partys nomination on three separate occasions.

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Democrats vie for chance to take on Trump as California governor - The Hill