Do the Democrats care if President is more ‘aggressive’ or ‘fiery’ as early reports suggest? I don’t really see why.

For TPM members, our reporters and editors — some on Capitol Hill, some following along at our offices in D.C. and New York — will have a sort of live blog of quick reactions to the State of the Union. Follow along here.

Give this a read. Cameron Joseph has some important context as we go into the State of the Union. Mitch McConnell really wants Trump to back off his Wall demand and clearly doesn’t want the President to take the “national emergency” shortcut. Part of the reason is that Congress might actually overrule his emergency declaration.

This one is important.

As close readers know, I’ve long been interested in the role of Tom Barrack, Trump confidante and billionaire real estate developer who keeps showing up at critical junctures in the Russia story and yet seems largely to have escaped much scrutiny or legal jeopardy. That may be changing. Read this memo, which goes directly to his role running the Inauguration Committee and points to connections to other parts of the Russia probe.

Gavin McInnes, founder of the Proud Boys, the paramilitary group with ties to white supremacists, is suing the Southern Poverty Law Center for labeling his group a hate group.

Here’s a quietly remarkable story out of Utah, getting fairly little attention nationally because of all the fireworks in D.C. Last November Utahns voted by a clear if not overwhelming majority for Medicaid expansion in their state. That was Proposition 3. The state’s legislature is in the process of simply overruling that decision, passing a plan that actually costs more than Medicaid expansion and automatically voids itself if the federal government doesn’t issue Utah a waiver that the state seems unlikely to get. Read More

To the surprise of I hope absolutely no one, the bogus “evidence” of widespread non-citizen voting in Texas, pushed by state Republicans, continues to collapse.

In our recent Inside briefings we’ve had a running conversation about the ins and outs of congressional oversight, how it’s properly done, its scope, what it can and can’t do. We’re going to continue this conversation next week with former Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA), who is widely seen as the most accomplished and capable congressional overseer and investigator of the post-Watergate era. Read More

Aside from a few remarks on Twitter, I wasn’t sure there was much to add on the unexpected collapse of Ralph Northam’s governorship and political career. But I saw a note from TPM Reader AW who asked me to share my reactions, thoughts, comments. So here goes.

When I first saw this news yesterday afternoon it was such a whipsaw, unexpected development it took me a short while to make sense of it. We see pols appearing in black face or in some kind of Confederate regalia or other similar situations. Usually the identity of the public figure isn’t a huge surprise. Though I don’t know a great deal about him, I certainly didn’t expect this from Ralph Northam. And this is about as over the top as you can get. Not just blackface but a guy in Klan robe as well. Other than a jocular reenactment of a lynching, it’s basically maxed out on racist aggression. Read More

In a press conference still underway. Virginia Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam insisted that he wasn’t in the racist photo on his med school yearbook page – then disclosed that he had “darkened my face” on another occasion around the same time, to dress up as Michael Jackson in a dance contest.