7 Things: Democrats change the argument again, Shelby wants to play kingmaker, renaming failing schools won’t fix them and more …

7. ISIS bride not recognized as a citizen

• Hoda Muthana, a woman who left her family in Alabama to join ISIS, will not be recognized as a U.S. citizen, according to a ruling by Washington, D.C. federal Judge Reggie Walton.
• Previously, a lawsuit was filed by the Constitutional Law Center for Muslims in America asking that Muthana be recognized as a citizen so that she could return to the U.S. with her son.

6. Tlaib under fire for ethics violations

• U.S. Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) is being investigated for ethics violations, and now the House Ethics Committee has released texts and emails where Tlaib requested campaign money for personal expenses.
• In one of the messages, Tlaib said that she was “struggling financially” and she “was thinking the campaign could loan [her] money, but Ryan said that the committee could actually pay me. I was thinking a one-time payment of $5k.” The Office of Congressional Ethics has already approved that the investigation is “expanded.”

5. Removing the “failing” label given to failing schools

• During a state school board work session, Governor Kay Ivey showed her support for removing the “failing” label given to some schools in Alabama when she asked if the schools could be called “something besides ‘failing?’”
• For the label of the bottom 6% of schools to change, the Alabama Accountability Act that was passed in 2013 would have to change. In 2017, State Senator Del Marsh (R-Anniston) proposed changing the label, according to his spokesperson William Califf.

4. Sessions wants the Trump endorsement

• President Donald Trump has regularly been critical of former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, but while on “Fox & Friends,” Sessions said that he hopes to get Trump’s endorsement in the Alabama 2020 U.S. Senate election, adding that he’s “going to work for that.”
• Sessions has already shown that he’s wanting Trump’s support in his new political video ad posted on social media where Sessions is first shown with Trump at the February 2016 rally and then Sessions puts on a MAGA hat in the video. The ad reinforces the fact that Sessions was the first to endorse Trump.

3. Shelby’s support for Sessions is already showing

• Now that former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has announced his 2020 U.S. Senate campaign, he’s already received an endorsement from U.S. Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) and at least 10 other Senators.
• However, Shelby will be showing his support for Sessions by also attending a fundraiser to be held in Huntsville on January 5, 2020, that will have a general admission cost of $1,000 and a VIP admission cost of $5,000.

2. Byrne is calling out the impeachment process

• While giving a speech on the House floor, U.S. Representative Bradley Byrne (R-Fairhope) took his time to bash the impeachment process, first by bringing attention to the fact that many other issues have been ignored, including “the US-Mexico Canada free trade agreement” and “funding the military or bipartisan legislation to lower the cost of prescription drugs.”
• Byrne went on to deem the process “a total sham” and mentioned that while the current impeachment hearings are public, they’re just a “showcasing of witnesses they’ve already interrogated and vetted in that little room to ensure they will say only what the Democrats desire.” Byrne also said that the whole impeachment effort is just the Democrats’ way of keeping President Donald Trump from getting reelected.

1. Now it is a bribery charge that will take down Trump 

• After polling and ratings determined that the media and their Democrats’ latest impeachment fixation is a bust, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) responded by saying this is now all about “bribery.” She stated, “The bribe is to grant or withhold military assistance in return for a public statement of a fake investigation into the election — that’s bribery.”
• But this will not stop them. The Democrats will now take a few more bites at the apple today as a U.S. ambassador to Ukraine is expected to give an emotional testimony and now a new witness has emerged who declared that he overheard a phone call in a restaurant between the president of the United States and the ambassador to the European Union where he asked about the investigation.