President Trump said the recently released memo alleging intelligence abuse during the FBI investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign “totally vindicates” him.

Among his first statements following Friday’s release of the now-declassified memo by Republicans in control of the House Intelligence Committee, Trump suggested Saturday the revelations in the document prove the ongoing probe is a “witch hunt.”

“This memo totally vindicates ‘Trump’ in probe,” Trump tweeted Saturday. “But the Russian Witch Hunt goes on and on. Their [sic] was no Collusion and there was no Obstruction (the word now used because, after one year of looking endlessly and finding NOTHING, collusion is dead). This is an American disgrace!”

The four-page memo, written by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., alleges intelligence abuse by the Department of Justice and the FBI during the 2016 presidential campaign. Particularly, it alleges that the two agencies requested a surveillance warrant using a disputed anti-Trump dossier funded by Democrats.

The memo said former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe testified to the committee that “no surveillance warrant would have been sought” from the FISA court “without the Steele dossier information.”

The memo said it was not disclosed that the dossier was authored by an outspoken Trump critic and former British spy, Christopher Steele.

“What’s going on in this country, I think it is a disgrace,” the president said at the White House after the memo was released. “When you look at that, and you see that, and so many other things what’s going on, a lot of people should be ashamed of themselves, and much worse than that.”

Nunes told Fox News’ Bret Baier on Friday that the release of the memo was out of “an obligation to the American people.”

“I have an obligation to the American people when we see FISA abuse,” Nunes said on “Special Report.” “These are secret courts that exist to target for foreigners, for catching terrorists, for catching people who might be bad actors and the American citizens that are represented before this court have to be protected, and the only place that can protect them is the U.S. Congress when abuses do occur.”

Trump has repeatedly argued that the investigation – which was taken by special counsel Robert Mueller in May – that the probe has found no collusion from his campaign and should be concluded.

Prior to the release of the memo Friday, Trump tweeted: “The top Leadership and Investigators of the FBI and the Justice Department have politicized the sacred investigative process in favor of Democrats and against Republicans – something which would have been unthinkable just a short time ago. Rank & File are great people!”

By Joseph Weber | Fox News

Fox News’ Paulina Dedaj contributed to this report.

While a panel of news anchors was discussing President Trump’s attacks of the mainstream media, urging the American public to remain skeptical of the press, Brzezinski proclaimed that Americans may begin to trust Trump over the press.

The MSNBC host recently lamented the influence President Trump has in influencing the American agenda:

“Well, I think the dangerous edges here are that he’s trying to undermine the media, trying to make up his own facts, and it could be that while unemployment and the economy worsens, he could have undermined the messaging…”

Still think that MSM is “real news”? According to MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski, it’s their job to control “exactly what people think,” too. Yes, that’s right—one of the most popular anchors at a major mainstream news conglomerate literally just said it’s the media’s job to control exactly what people think.

[pullquote]Mika Brzezinski: “…so much that he could control exactly what people think…and that is our job.”[/pullquote]

And yet, somehow, people keep saying that Trump’s supporters are putting out fake news. They attack Breitbart, they attack Silence is Consent, they attack Info Wars, and they attack our movement.

Can people not see the hypocrisy of the MSM? They literally aren’t even trying to hide it anymore—Mika Brzezinski literally says that it’s “our job,” to “control exactly what people think.”

By Jon Anthony

The Trump White House and Capitol Hill Republicans cranked up the pressure Monday on Democrats to abandon their immediate demands for immigration measures and vote in support of a temporary spending bill to end a government shutdown now in its third day.

“They shut down the government,” White House counselor Kellyanne Conway told “Fox & Friends” on Monday morning. “The pressure is on them.”

President Trump tweeted that Democrats shut down the government to appease the “far left base” and are now “powerless” to change course.

“The Democrats are turning down services and security for citizens in favor of services and security for non-citizens. Not good!” he tweeted.

A critical test vote is now set for early afternoon on a measure to fund the government through Feb. 8. The vote would end a Democratic filibuster that forced the shutdown overnight Friday – and could require nearly a dozen total votes from Democratic members this time around.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., announced on the floor ahead of the test vote that they’ve reached an agreement — and “will vote today to re-open the government.”

He said this comes with a commitment to negotiate on immigration, and immediately consider such legislation if there’s no agreement by Feb. 8.

Video

Conway: Trump will talk immigration after Dems reopen gov’t

The vote will be the GOP-controlled Senate’s second attempt to break the filibuster, after failing to get the required 60 votes Friday. But whether Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has the votes remains unclear.

Republicans have a 51-49 member majority in the Senate. The Friday night vote was 50-49.

Arizona GOP Sen. John McCain did not vote because he’s home recovering from cancer. Four other Republican senators — Sens. Lindsey Graham, of South Carolina; Rand Paul, of Kentucky; Mike Lee, of Utah; and Jeff Flake, of Arizona — voted against the bill.

The Capitol Visitor Center is empty, as the government shutdown enters its third day.

Flake and Graham were part of a bipartisan group of senators that met Sunday to broker a possible deal in which rank-and-file members would provide the 60 votes, then perhaps help pass the spending bill later this week by a simple 51-vote majority. In exchange, McConnell has vowed to immediately address immigration reform.

“When the Democrat filibuster of the government funding bill ends, the serious, bipartisan negotiations that have been going on for months now to resolve our unfinished business — military spending;  disaster relief;  healthcare; immigration and border security — will continue,” McConnell said Sunday night in announcing the noon vote. “It would be my intention to resolve these issues as quickly as possible … Importantly, when I proceed to the immigration debate, it will have an amendment process that is fair to all sides. But the first step in any of this is re-opening the government and preventing any further delay.”

Graham and Flake are expected to support the spending measure this time. If that holds, and the five Democrats who supported the first bill support this one, an additional six Democrats are needed to break the filibuster. Pressure could be heavy on senators who represent states with large federal workforces – like Virginia’s Tim Kaine and Mark Warner and Maryland’s Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen. Likewise, Democratic senators up for reelection this fall or from swing states could face pressure – like Ohio’s Sherrod Brown or Pennsylvania’s Bob Casey.

Democrats have withheld the votes on a spending bill in an attempt to force Trump and fellow Republicans in Congress to include protections for illegal immigrants brought into the United States as children.

Trump will in early March formally end deportation protections provided to the estimated 800,000 illegal immigrants now protected by former President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals executive order.

Trump has said he wants comprehensive immigration reform but that border security, particularly a U.S.-Mexico border wall, should be included in the plan.

Schumer, D-N.Y., argued again Sunday that he offered a compromise immigration plan to Trump to avoid a shutdown, including billions for his must-have wall.

“On Friday in the Oval Office, I made what I thought was a very generous offer to the president, the most generous offer yet,” Schumer said Sunday on the Senate floor. “The president must take yes for an answer. Until he does, it’s the Trump Shutdown.”

Republicans are adamant this is the “Schumer Shutdown.”

While the Democrats’ move appeals to their liberal base, they have faced backlash for forcing the shutdown, considering U.S. military personnel and nearly 1 million other federal employees will be furloughed and not receive pay until the government reopens.

Flake, who was part of the weekend bipartisan negotiations, later said, “We have a commitment to move to immigration,” but sounded uncertain about whether McConnell would have the votes. He also said the bipartisan group would meet again Monday before the vote.

Five Democratic senators voted Friday to end the filibuster: Sens. Doug Jones, of Alabama; John Donnelly, of Indiana; Heidi Heitkamp, of North Dakota; Joe Manchin, of West Virginia; and Claire McCaskill, of Missouri. They all face 2018 reelection in states that Trump won in 2016.

Fox News’ Chad Pergram contributed to this report.

Singer Moby claimed his friends in the CIA asked him to spread the word that President Trump has ties to Russia because he has a larger social media following than the government agency.

Moby, whose birth name is Richard Melville Hall, told Kentucky radio station WFPK in an interview this week that he has friends in the CIA who asked him for his help.

The subject came up after the host, Kyle Meredith, asked the electronic singer about his cryptic Facebook post he wrote in 2017. The post stated that after he spent time with friends who “work in D.C.” he could “accurately post” that the Fusion GPS Dossier was “100% real. He’s being blackmailed by the Russian government.” The post also claimed Trump has colluded “with the Russian government, and has been since day one,” wants to go to war and there are “right-wing plans to get rid of Trump.”

Moby said he wrote the post because his “friends” he claimed are “active and former CIA agents” asked him to “pass on some information.”

“They were like, ‘This is the Manchurian Candidate, like [Putin] has a Russian agent as the President of the United States,’” he told Meredith. “So they passed on some information to me and they said, like, ‘Look, you have more of a social media following than any of us do, can you please post some of these things just in a way that sort of put it out there.’”

Moby concluded by saying he did not know if “there was collusion” but “where there is smoke there is fire.”

Meredith and Moby spoke more about politics before ending the interview asking the singer who he would like to see run for president next.

Moby said his dream candidate would be former first lady Michelle Obama.

Trump and the Kremlin have repeatedly denied allegations that Russia and the Trump campaign colluded in the 2016 presidential election. A special counsel, led by former FBI Director Robert Mueller has been appointed to investigate the potential wrongdoing.

Fox News’ Kaitlyn Schallhorn contributed to this report.

Republican Joe Arpaio, a close ally of President Trump and former sheriff known for his provocative approach to combatting illegal immigration, is running for Senate in Arizona.

The 85-year-old Arpaio could shake up the late August Republican primary in a critical open-seat race to replace retiring Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz. Trump pardoned Arpaio last summer, sparing the former sheriff jail time after he was convicted of ignoring a federal court order in a racial-profiling case.

The polarizing yet iconic former Maricopa County sheriff, beloved by many conservatives for his hawkish immigration policies, presents an alternative to the unimpressive Kelli Ward and a potential obstacle to Rep. Martha McSally. She is expected to launch within days and is widely viewed as the Republicans’ strongest general election candidate.

In a telephone interview with the Washington Examiner, Arpaio shrugged off concerns about his age, dismissed Republican insiders’ anxiety that his poor reputation with nonwhite voters would put the seat in play for the Democrats in the midterm, and discussed plans to work with Trump on behalf of Arizona.

“I have a lot to offer. I’m a big supporter of President Trump,” Arpaio said. “I’m going to have to work hard; you don’t take anything for granted. But I would not being doing this if I thought that I could not win. I’m not here to get my name in the paper, I get that everyday, anyway.”

Arpaio served as the elected sheriff of Maricopa County, which encompasses Phoenix and surrounding suburbs, for 24 years until a Democrat ousted him in 2016.

Through strict opposition to illegal immigration and unorthodox policing methods, Arpaio cultivated a national image as a tough, law-and-order cop. That made him a favorite of conservative media and popular on the GOP endorsement circuit as Republicans throughout the country sought to bolster their border security bona fides in primaries.

Arpaio’s sharp rhetoric and law enforcement practices also drew intense criticism. Democrats, some Republicans, and advocates for immigrants — both legal and illegal — accused him of unconstitutional racial profiling and even bigotry. Arpaio said he expects more of the same in his Senate campaign, but vowed not to alter his approach.

“My mother and father came here from Italy, legally of course. I have a soft spot for the Mexican community having lived there,” he said. “I’m not going to get into my personal life, but I will say we have four grandkids and some have a different ethnic and racial background. I don’t say that. I don’t use my grandkids. So, I have a soft spot, but still, I’m going to do my job. You have to do it.”

“Being a U.S. senator is a little different than being the sheriff, because you can do a lot of things in the U.S. Senate, and I have many plans, believe me. It’s tough. It’s a tough decision. But, if you’re going to come across that border, you should be arrested and get the consequences of it,” Arpaio added.

Trump won Arizona in 2016 by just 4.1 percentage points. Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton was rising in the state until the final 10 days of the presidential campaign, when the FBI revealed that it was taking a fresh look into her use of a private email server during her tenure as secretary of state and halted her momentum.

Trump’s job approval numbers with nonwhites and suburbanites since have been poor. That’s potentially significant in Arizona, where both voting blocs can be influential.

To be sure, Arpaio’s reputation and close affiliation with Trump is virtually guaranteed to rev up a conservative base that had pushed the pragmatic Flake into retirement because of his feud with the president. That could work in his favor in a midterm, elections in which Republican turnout has tended to dominate. But in an election shaping up as challenging for the GOP, Arpaio’s candidacy could make nervous a party defending a 51-49 Senate majority.

Even if Arpaio loses the primary to McSally, he would have had seven months to push her to the right and define GOP messaging on a host of issues — and not just in Arizona. Trump is sure to promote Arpaio’s campaign, and Republican primary candidates all over the country might follow his lead.

Arpaio said he relishes the fight, whether from the Left or from supporters of McSally on the Right.

“I am outspoken. I’m looking forward to it. Let them come. They’ll have their political firing squads and bring tons of money here, because they don’t want to lose,” he said. “I just want to do everything I can to support our president.”

Arpaio said he expects Democrats to make an issue of the pardon. It was granted on Aug. 25, his wife’s 86th birthday. Arpaio noted that fact, and that he shares a birthday with Trump — June 14 — with a sense of satisfaction, as he did the periodic calls from the president to check in on his wife’s health.

The former sheriff said he has not personally discussed his Senate bid with Trump and emphasized that he didn’t ask for the pardon nor did he know that it was coming. But Arpaio did not apologize for it, calling his conviction part of a political witch hunt by former President Barack Obama and his first attorney general, Eric Holder.

Unprompted, Arpaio added that Flake, and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., with whom he said he has a “love-hate” relationship, opposed the pardon.

“This started under Obama and Holder 60 days after they took office and it took them all these years to get me on a contempt of court charge, a misdemeanor. You get the same time for barking dogs,” he said.

Arpaio was vague on his policy agenda beyond immigration enforcement. That’s not unusual. Candidates, especially at the beginning of a campaign, tend to try and keep their message focused on a few bullet points and maintain flexibility by not putting down too many markers.

Arpaio’s main offer to Arizonans: He would support Trump unflinchingly, should he win the nomination and defeat the likely Democratic nominee, Rep. Kyrsten Sinema. That’s not insignificant. Both Flake and McCain have a contentious relationship with the president, and he with them.

To that end, Arpaio suggested he could support some form of legalization of participants in the since discontinued Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program that protected illegal immigrants brought in as children from deportation. Of course, in typical fashion, Arpaio offered his own view of what should be done.

“I have a far-out plan, which may look stupid,” he said. “When they come to your attention that they’re here illegally, these young people, deport them back to Mexico — or whatever — and then try to put them on a fast track to come back into the United States legally with special permits. What’s wrong with that? They’d say they don’t know where their home country is, so let them go there and spend six months, because it might take that long to do paperwork to get them here legally and let them see their home country and see what it’s really like. They ought to be proud where they came from. I’m proud being an Italian American. I’m proud of Italy. I’m proud my father, mother came over, proud of it. So, you could kill two birds with one stone.”

“That would be no amnesty, everybody would be happy, you deport them and then let them come back with all their education here. I’m sure they could find a temporary job or help the foreign countries and build up relations and come back. That’s just a big picture that I have. People may say I’m crazy. What am I crazy about? It just makes sense.”

The Justice Department has launched a new inquiry into whether the Clinton Foundation engaged in any pay-to-play politics or other illegal activities while Hillary Clinton served as secretary of State, law enforcement officials and a witness tells The Hill.

FBI agents from Little Rock, Ark., where the foundation was started, have taken the lead in the investigation and have interviewed at least one witness in the last month, and law enforcement officials said additional activities are expected in the coming weeks.

The officials, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, said the probe is examining whether the Clintons promised or performed any policy favors in return for largesse to their charitable efforts or whether donors made commitments of donations in hopes of securing government outcomes.

The probe may also examine whether any tax-exempt assets were converted for personal or political use and whether the foundation complied with applicable tax laws, the officials said.

One witness recently interviewed by the FBI described the session to The Hill as “extremely professional and unquestionably thorough” and focused on questions about whether donors to Clinton charitable efforts received any favorable treatment from the Obama administration on a policy decision previously highlighted in media reports.

The witness discussed his interview solely on the grounds of anonymity. He said the agents were from Little Rock and their questions focused on government decisions and discussions of donations to Clinton entities during the time Hillary Clinton led President Obama’s State Department.

The FBI office in Little Rock referred a reporter Thursday to Washington headquarters, where officials declined any official comment.

The Wall Street Journal reported late last year that several FBI field offices, including the one in Little Rock, had been collecting information on the Clinton Foundation for more than a year. The report also said there had been pushback to the FBI from the Justice Department.

A renewed law enforcement focus follows a promise to Congress late last year from top Trump Justice Department officials that law enforcement would revisit some of the investigations and legal issues closed during the Obama years that conservatives felt were given short shrift. It also follows months of relentless criticism on Twitter from President Trump, who has repeatedly questioned why no criminal charges were ever filed against the “crooked” Clintons and their fundraising machine.

For years, news media from The New York Times to The Daily Caller have reported countless stories on donations to the Clinton Foundation or speech fees that closely fell around the time of favorable decisions by Clinton’s State Department. Conservative author Peter Schweizer chronicled the most famous of episodes in his book “Clinton Cash” that gave ammunition to conservatives, including Trump, to beat the drum for a renewed investigation.

Several GOP members of Congress have recently urged Attorney General Jeff Sessions to appoint a special counsel to look at the myriad issues surrounding the Clintons. Justice officials sent a letter to Congress in November suggesting some of those issues were being re-examined, but Sessions later testified the appointment of a special prosecutor required a high legal bar that had not yet been met.

When he ran for the White House in 2016, Donald Trump promised to make America great again.

Late Sunday night, on what appeared to be a busy Christmas Eve at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, the president took a bow for what he views as his successful role in making Christmas merry again.

“People are proud to be saying Merry Christmas again,” the president tweeted shortly before 10 p.m. EST. “I am proud to have led the charge against the assault of our cherished and beautiful phrase. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!”

Sunday’s tweet seemed as if the president were claiming “mission accomplished” following some comments he made in October at the Family Research Council’s Values Voter Summit in Washington.

“We’re getting near that beautiful Christmas season that people don’t talk about anymore. They don’t use the word Christmas because it’s not politically correct,” the president said to cheers. “You go to department stores and they’ll say ‘Happy New Year,’ or they’ll say other things and it’ll be red, they’ll have it painted.”

“Well, guess what? We’re saying ‘Merry Christmas’ again.”

Earlier Sunday, the president and first lady Melania Trump released an official photo, showing them making calls to children across the U.S. as part of the traditional NORAD tracking of Santa’s annual trip around the globe.

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump make Christmas calls to children from their home at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., Dec. 24, 2017.  (White House photo)

The president and first lady each spoke to 11 children in all. The kids ranged in age from 5 to 12.

Trump also communicated to U.S. troops who were spending the holiday overseas.

“Today and every day, we’re incredibly thankful for you and for your families,” Trump told the troops via a video hook-up at Mar-a-Lago. “Your families have been tremendous. Always underappreciated, the military families. The greatest people on Earth.”

The president was addressing members of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard stationed in Qatar, Kuwait and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and patrolling the Strait of Hormuz in the Middle East.

The president complimented each branch of the armed forces, starting with the Army’s “Iron Brigade” combat team in Kuwait, which he said is performing a “vital mission” by partnering with the Iraqi, Kuwaiti, Saudi Arabian and Jordanian armies.

He said a Kuwait-based, Marine Corps air-ground task force has provided more than 4,000 flight hours of close air support in the campaign against the Islamic State group, and he thanked sailors aboard the USS Sampson for defending “high-value assets” in the Strait of Hormuz.

President Donald Trump communicates with U.S. troops via a video hook-up at his home in Palm Beach, Fla., Dec. 24, 2017.  (Associated Press)

Trump also singled out the Air Force’s 69th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron in Qatar for engaging more than 700 IS and Taliban targets in five separate countries and winning two trophies in an Air Force bomb competition.

He showered the most praise on the Coast Guard, which impressed him with its rescue operations during a devastating hurricane season.

“You’ve done such an incredible job in Texas and Florida and Puerto Rico,” Trump said. “Many Republicans are very happy but, I have to tell you, the people of Florida, Texas, Puerto Rico and lots of other states are even more happy. What a job you’ve done … saved thousands and thousands of lives.”

In closing, Trump offered thanks to those who are spending time away from their families to “defend all of our families, our freedoms and our pride.”

“Every American heart is thankful to you and we’re asking God to watch over you and to watch over your families,” he said, before he asked journalists to leave the room so he could begin answering any service member questions.

“Every American heart is thankful to you and we’re asking God to watch over you and to watch over your families.”

– President Donald Trump, in a Christmas Eve call to U.S. troops stationed overseas

Trump began the day by tweeting against a top FBI official he has suggested is biased against him, as well as the news media. The president also spent several hours playing golf at his private club in West Palm Beach.

Later, Trump ate Christmas Eve dinner with his family before attending worship services with the first lady at the Episcopal church in Palm Beach where they were married in 2005.

Fox News’ Joseph Weber and the Associated Press contributed to this story.