| | | | | President Trump and Vice President Pence visit the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington, D.C., Monday. Credit: Pete Marovich/Pool via Bloomberg | | What Washington is Talking About:
It's day 32 of the shutdown and though Majority Leader McConnell and Speaker Pelosi each have their own proposals to end it, neither is expected to pass both chambers; the FBI Agents Association is set to release a 60-page document explaining how the shutdown has impacted their work; and the Supreme Court ruled today to allow President Trump's transgender military ban to go forward while lower courts work through it.
What America is Talking About:
Oscar nominations are out and "Roma" and "The Favorite" lead with 10 nods; a restaurant owner who was stiffed and then featured in the Netflix documentary about Fyre Festival has raised more than $161,000 on GoFundMe; and, of course, the videos from the National Mall with students from Covington Catholic High School. A Twitter account that helped spread the video was suspended after our Donie O'Sullivan found it claimed to be a California school teacher but used a profile photo of a Brazilian blogger.
It's Halftime in Trump's First Term:
The Washington Post's Fact Checker found Trump made 8,158 false or misleading claims in his first two years in office. More than 6,000 of those claims were made in year two.
The Women's March Went On:
In its third year and with its organizers facing accusations of anti-Semitism, Saturday's Women's March in Washington, D.C., had smaller crowds than previous years. But Democrats still attended marches across the country and unaffiliated with the D.C. event, including Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in Des Moines, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York City.
Pop stars inspired some demonstrators at the rallies. Photo galleries of fan-made protest signs were posted by Ariana Grande (like "Thank You Next, Vote 2020," which she has since deleted) and Cardi B ("What Cardi B said"). | | Credit: Erik McGregor/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images
Lady Gaga Speaks Out on Shutdown, Karen Pence:
During her rendition of "A Million Reasons" this weekend at her show in Las Vegas, Lady Gaga called out the Trump administration over the shutdown. "There are people who live paycheck-to-paycheck and need their money," she said.
Gaga also came out against Second Lady Karen Pence's teaching job at a school that bans gay and transgender students and faculty. "You are the worst representation of what it means to be a Christian," she said. "What I do know about Christianity is that we bear no prejudice and everybody is welcome." You can watch Gaga's speech here. | | Credit: @gagaamour/Twitter
Emin's North American Tour Canceled:
Emin announced Monday that he was canceling his North American tour, set to begin Saturday in New York City. "Due to circumstances beyond my control, I'm forced to postponed my scheduled US and Canadian tour," he said in an Instagram video. "Basically, I've been put in this position against my will. We planned these shows a year from now."
The singer's lawyer, Scott Balber, told CNN they were in talks with Robert Mueller's team and Congressional committees about sitting for interviews, but couldn't agree to terms. Balber said Emin "has nothing to hide. He wants to tell his story," but he wanted to do so voluntarily and not under a subpoena. I reached out to Emin publicist Dominic Mohan about why he didn't want to be served a subpoena, but didn't receive a response to that question.
Emin helped set up the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and members of the Trump team with a Russian lawyer. His publicist at the time, Rob Goldstone, promised DJTJ incriminating evidence about Hillary Clinton as part of Russia's support for Trump's candidacy, but he later said he "puffed up" his comments to reflect Russia's attitude toward Trump. "It wasn't made up. It was puffed up," he told the Washington Post. "There's a huge difference in that." Goldstone has met with Mueller's team and said he supports their investigation.
Make It Like Your Birthday Every Day:
So this was weird. @realDonaldTrump liked a @Shazam tweet on Saturday from October 25, 2018 celebrating Katy Perry's birthday. It is no longer liked on his account, but the below tweets are still liked, suggesting he or someone else unliked the Katy Perry tweet but left these random ones. Anyways, happy belated birthday, Katy Perry! | | Credit: @realDonaldTrump/Twitter
Kamala Harris' Logo is The First That Looks Like It's Having Any Fun:
Sen. Kamala Harris' presidential campaign logo moves in a way none of her competitors' so far do. It cascades in stacks of words, with multiple color and font size combinations, no two lines of text's style is the same.
We see the movement Harris' branding is meant to evoke in her announcement video. Set to a drumline-like stomping beat, words like "truth," "freedom," and "democracy" dance around the screen, popping up in her color scheme of purple, yellow, and red. It's playful, it's fun. When she says "fight," that word is represented through sight and sound like a party you don't want to miss. | | Credit: Kamala Harris for the People/National Museum of African American History & Culture
As Ahyana, my seat mate on the plane into DCA yesterday noticed when she saw it, it looks like logo for a throwback TV show. Fonts do a lot of heavy lifting in TV show logos, giving us an idea of the kind of program we'll be watching. 1990s logos for shows like "Saved By The Bell," "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," or "All That" each convey motion through their text in a way most modern Netflix logos do not.
Harris' font, adapted from Bureau Grotesque Condensed Bold, is much more conservative than the fonts used for any of the aforementioned '90s shows, but it still has a retro look. The logo was created by Wide Eye, the creative agency that did Stacey Abrams' 2018 gubernatorial design. And it's inspired by Shirley Chisholm, the New York congresswoman who became the first black woman to run for a major party nomination in 1972, Harris national press secretary Ian Sams said in an email. Chisholm's design, including her bold and minimal "Bossed and Unbought" posters, still pops nearly 50 years later.
If the Trump Show is reality TV, Harris' logo suggests counter-programming. It even sounds like a show. It's not "Harris 2020," it's "Kamala Harris For The People," like a broadcast courtroom drama mashed up with a feel-good family sitcom.
Street Art Sighting:
Alice Marie Johnson, the woman whose lifetime sentence for a nonviolent drug offense was commuted by Trump after meeting with Kim Kardashian West, is the star of this ad up in DCA from Americans for Prosperity, a Koch Brothers advocacy group. | | Credit: Hunter Schwarz
Of all the ways the right has changed under Trump, the growing support for criminal justice reform is among the most surprising, as is the fact Kim K played a role in it.
Tag or DM me your political street art sightings @hunterschwarz on Twitter or Instagram, or email me at coverlinehunter@cnn.com.
Kate Bennett is off. Her section will return this week. | | | | | | |
