Welcome to the online edition of From The Politics Desk, an evening newsletter that provides the latest reports and analysis from the NBC News Politics team’s White House, Capitol Hill and Campaign Trail.
Happy Friday and you and your Happy Valentine’s Day. In today’s edition, “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker sits with Munich’s Ukrainian President Voldy Milzelensky. Furthermore, we look back at the week in which Court President Donald Trump was. Jonathan Allen writes that the recent upheaval at the Justice Department is reminiscent of the “Saturday Night Massacre” during the Nixon administration.
Programming Note: We are taking a break for President’s Day on Monday and will return to our inbox on Tuesday, February 18th.
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– Adam Walner
Zelenskyy: It’s “very difficult” for Ukraine to survive without US military support
Alexander Smith and Alexandra Marquez
Ukrainian President Voldymir Zelensky told NBC News “On Friday, Meet the Media” said it would be “very, very, very difficult” for Ukraine to survive without US military support. The current war is over.
“It’s probably very, very difficult, and of course, in all the difficult situations, you have a chance,” Zelensky said with “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker, bystander at the Munich Security Conference. He spoke in an interview. “But we are unlikely and unlikely to survive without US support. That’s very important and I think it’s important.”
“I don’t want to think,” Zelensky added, “I don’t think we’ll be strategic partners.”
Instead of ending the war, Zelensky wants to come to the negotiation table to get a ceasefire contract that will lift certain international sanctions against Russia and allow Russian troops to reorganize. He said he was thinking about it.
Background: Zelenskyy’s comments took place at a volatile summit held in Germany. There, Vice President JD Vance criticized European leaders on many issues unrelated to Russia’s Ukrainian invasion, including his lack of support for “values shared with the United States of America.”
German President Frank Walter Steinmeier responded with his own offensive views, saying the Trump administration “does not respect the growth of established rules, partnerships and trust.”
The Gulf of Expansion between Europe and the US is coming at a particularly sensitive time for Zelensky and exhausted, depleted Ukraine. The war appears to have come down into a quagmire, but the Russian army is slowing down with painful progress. Russia controls about 20% of the country and desperately needs weapons and soldiers.
Read more →
And watch the interview on “Match the Press” on Sunday morning.
Things you need to know from today’s President Trump
The Trump administration fired massive firing across the federal government on Thursday and Friday, affecting thousands of workers who had jobs for less than two years. Dismantling the agency. (Read more about Trump’s legal challenges below.) Trump has signed two executive orders. One concluded federal funding for schools that require the Covid vaccine and federal funding for schools that will establish a new panel called the “Energy Control Council.” R-Miss. “Confused and disturbed” by comments from Defense Secretary Pete Hegses, who argued that Ukraine’s return to the border in 2014 was “unrealistic,” and he was “confused and disturbed.” I stated. Trump defended Hegses’ speech, saying he knew what was “general.”
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A week of legal setback and one big victory for Trump’s agenda –
Trump’s efforts to rebuild the federal government through a series of drastic executive orders hit many obstacles this week in court, but he also won a major legal victory.
Dareh Gregorian has put together Trump’s week in court.
Retreat:
A federal judge in Washington, DC has approved a temporary restraining order blocking the freeze on federal grants to carry out foreign aid activities. Another federal judge in DC also suspended plans to dismantle the US International Development Agency. A federal judge in Rhode Island said the government has halted a massive freeze on federal funding in violation of the order. It was the first time a judge had accused him of violating a court order. A federal judge in Boston temporarily suspends a move from the National Institutes of Health to suspend grants to almost 20 states. The aim is to limit transgender healthcare for people under the age of 19 for at least two weeks.
victory:
A federal judge in Boston allowed the administration’s massive “resignation” program for federal employees to move forward, and controlled the unions that led to the lawsuit.
Next round challenges:
Democrats attorney generals of 14 states called for the constitutionality of government efficiency. The union and civil rights coalition have filed a lawsuit attempting to block Trump’s plans to override the Consumer Financial Protection Agency. A security decision to revoke guidance banning immigrant raids at or near a place of worship, except in emergencies or with the exception of high levels of prior written supervision approval. The coalition of immigration rights groups claims it denied that immigrants were sent to Guantanamo Bay.
Read more from Dareh’s Roundup→
How will the latest orders from Trump’s DOJ compare to “Saturday Night Massacre”?
Analysis by Jonathan Allen
Richard Nixon had his “Saturday Night Massacre,” and now Donald Trump has his Valentine’s Day Massacre.
Like a good Valentine’s story, this depends not only on the day, but on filming. It began Monday when Emil Bove, a representative attorney general and former Trump lawyer, ordered the top federal prosecutor of New York’s Daniel Sussone to withdraw corruption charges against Mayor Eric Adams.
Trump hopes Adams will support more immigrants — putting political pressure on other mayors to do the same — Adams probably doesn’t want to risk going to prison herself It was.
Sasson did not go to court to withdraw the prosecution. Instead, she resigned on Thursday, revealing that Supreme Justice Department officials met with Adams’ defense attorneys to reveal that what she said was equivalent to Quid Pro. I also stopped some of her agents.
Adams and his lawyers denied Quidpro, but the Trump administration barely discouraged the public from reaching similar conclusions. In the order of unfortunate phrases, Trump’s “border emperor” Tom Homan promoted the deal in a joint Fox News interview with Adams on Friday. “If he can’t get through,” Homan said, “I was in his office, I lifted his ass and said, ‘Where is the agreement we came?” ”
This episode is reminiscent of Saturday night slaughter. In October 1973, Nixon ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire the special watergate prosecutor of Archibald Cox, a man investigating Nixon. Richardson resigned instead. So did Richardson’s deputy William Ruckelschaus. Finally, Attorney General Robert Bolk carried out on Nixon’s order.
The act of loyalty to the President and the party undoubtedly contributed to President Ronald Reagan’s appointment to the Supreme Court more than a decade later.
Public outrage over Saturday night’s massacre led to reform laws and decades of efforts by Nixon’s successors, which either distanced or gave the emergence of distance from the prosecutor’s decisions.
Trump soured Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who rejected himself from the decision to appoint a special advisor to investigate Trump’s relationship with Russia, and was plagued by the standards during his first term of office when he eventually fired. .
However, unlike Watergate or Russian probes, the president is not a target for investigation or prosecution in the current case. There is no law preventing the president from directing prosecution from the White House. If anything, the Supreme Court made it clear last year that the president would not be charged with official actions anyway.
Adams has not enjoyed such immunity and it will be interesting to see if state charges are being brought against him in New York.
What’s even more interesting, however, is how the episode reveals Trump, his long-standing complaints about the Justice Department’s politicization, and his frequently repeated promise to wipe out federal corruption. He does not apply the same standards to himself and there are no indications that he intends to.
Read more: Friday’s DOJ led to at least seven federal prosecutors resignations, causing corruption to Tom Winter, Tom Winter, Ryan J. Reilly, and Ryan J. Reilly and Adams He moved to dismiss the charges. Rich Shapiro Report.
today’s other top stories
Step One: The Republican-controlled House Budget Committee voted along the party line to advance a massive budget blueprint to cut taxes and trillions of dollars in spending. Read more → 👀Doge Bites Man: The government’s Ministry of Efficiency is wary of some carrier employees, using software that can transfer huge amounts of data from the labor bureau from the workforce’s system. Read More → 💘All Love and Memes: Politicians flooded social media feeds with Valentine’s Day notes. And in their sincere message to their loved ones, some will pay less enthusiastic wishes. Read more →
For now, it’s all from the political desk. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Adam Wollner and Faith Wardwell.
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