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.

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.

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.

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.

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

9:56 PM: “You weren’t supposed to do that.”

"You weren't supposed to do that." hahahaha didn't see that comin' pic.twitter.com/TTJGEDo2YA

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) February 6, 2019

9:42 PM: Always important to note in these moments that immigrants – legal and undocumented – commit crimes at significantly lower rates than native-born Americans. If safety was the issue it would be better to toss a bunch of citizens and replace them with undocumented immigrants.

9:37 PM: How long til the story about the Mexicans busing caravaners up to parts of the border without a wall falls apart?

9:19 PM: Some fun.

Nancy catching up on paperwork like a boss. pic.twitter.com/0r0m4MN18P

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) February 6, 2019

9:15 PM: All incredibly anodyne so far.

9:08 PM: I didn’t see a single Democrat shake the President’s hand as he walked down the aisle. It’s a little hard to see. So I can’t say definitely. But it didn’t look like it … Jennifer Bendery of Huffpo tells me via Twitter that Jim McGovern, Bobby Rush, Jim Langevin did.

9:03 PM: Alright let’s get this over with.

All things considered, for Trump, this struck me as a fairly anodyne speech. It was fairly long for a State of the Union address. Trump hit his key bloodthirsty points, portraying undocumented immigrants as a tide of murderers threatening the country. He bragged on his supposed accomplishments – some real, most pretended. But overall, it tended to emphasize national unity, regardless of how empty that charge may be coming from what is certainly the most intentionally divisive President in modern American history. He even had some genuinely touching moments, such as the stories at the end of the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp, with US soldiers who were the liberators and inmates who were there that day. Read More

Treasury Secretary Mnuchin says US is sticking with Trump’s policies, not “going back to socialism.”

Treasury Secretary says US not "going back to socialism" we had before Trump. pic.twitter.com/pntW3SjXU2

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) February 6, 2019

One of the most important lessons, I would suggest one of the most ingrained lessons of the passage and subsequent defense of the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) is that Democrats gained nothing for their efforts to accommodate Republican insistence on market-oriented solutions to expanding health care coverage. The ACA was, famously, based on the plan then-Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA) passed in Massachusetts in the early aughts. The concept originated as a Heritage Foundation proposal meant to provide a ‘market-oriented’ alternative to Democratic universal coverage plans. Even worse than Republicans’ maximum resistance, many of the shortcomings of Obamacare were based on the plan’s concessions to the private insurance model of coverage.

For all these reasons, the experience has triggered a critical shift among Democrats. Single payer plans have always had substantial support among Democrats. For decades it was actually official party policy. But there was a middle group who supported single payer in principle but found either the politics intractable or the process of transition too complicated and disruptive given how entrenched the private system is and how interwoven it is with employment. Probably the majority of elected Democrats have been in this middle group for the last couple decades. Read More

Jerry Nadler will go into tomorrow’s high-stakes hearing featuring acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker with a subpoena in his back pocket.