This week marked 29 days of the government being shuttered, with no  end in sight. Agencies continued to feel the effects, as thousands of  furloughed employees were called back to work unpaid. Federal workers  formed blocks-long lines at food banks, and borrowed from retirement  accounts to make ends meet. Trump’s approval continued to fall this  week, with one poll indicating he is losing support from his base.  Conversely, House Speaker Pelosi’s popularity hit a 10-year high as the  two did battle, and Trump reckoned with the first check on his power.

This week was full of bombshell stories which, along with the  continued shutdown, rocked the country and made people increasingly  anxious and scared about the direction of the country. Major storylines  included Trump concealing contents of meetings with Russian President  Vladimir Putin, Trump’s continued fixation of withdrawing the U.S. from  NATO — a boon to Russia, and Michael Cohen paying an IT firm to rig  online polls to boost Trump. Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani made  headlines, telling CNN, “I never said there was no collusion between the  campaign or between people in the campaign,” which he later retracted. A  bombshell BuzzFeed News story suggesting Trump directed Cohen to lie to  Congress on Trump Tower Moscow was refuted by Mueller’s team, which  Trump and his allies quickly weaponized to attack the credibility of the  media.

Read the full list here: https://theweeklylist.org/weekly-list/week-114/