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7 Things: Trump won’t open the government temporarily, Ivey uses inauguration to call for bipartisanship and gas taxes, Roy Moore says he passed a polygraph after the election and more …

7. President Donald Trump and some Senate Democrats dismiss Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) as a “flavor of the month

— Ocasio-Cortez received a lot of attention when she called the president a racist on “60 Minutes,” but when Trump was asked about this attack he dismissively waved his hand and said, “Who cares?”

— Senate Democrats like Doug Jones (D-AL) are showing they are tiring of attention-grabbing antics by “AOC,” saying, “When it gets time to get things done, that’s what people are going to be looking at — they’re going to be looking at the middle-of-the-roaders because it’s the only way to get anything done.”

6. While Republicans like Mitt Romney (R-UT) call on Representative Steve King (R-IA) to resign for his racist views, Democrats stand by a congresswoman who is pro-Hezbollah

— Senator Romney has become the latest in a long line of Republicans to criticize King, saying, “I think he ought to step aside and I think Congress ought to make it very clear he has no place there.” King has now lost all his committee assignments.

— The response by the media and the left is quite different in regards to freshman Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI). Her support from anti-Semitic supporters goes unquestioned, as does her support for the boycott Israel movement. She smeared members of Congress and defended Marc Lamont Hill after he was fired for calling for the destruction of Israel.

5. TSA agents are calling out sick and causing issues — they are also receiving bonuses 

— The pain of the government shutdown is starting to impact travelers who are facing security lines of over an hour at airports. Some airports are having to close checkpoints and reroute travelers.

— While agents are missing work at double the normal rate, it was announced days ago that the agents would be receiving a bonus in their pay that will be paid during the partial government shutdown.

4. Former Judge Roy Moore has shared a polygraph he took seven days after the election that says he is innocent 

— According to Moore, the lie detector clears him in three of the accusations made in 2017 about Moore’s behavior with younger girls in his young adult life.

— Moore lost his election by less than 22,000 votes. A revelation that he passed a lie detector test would have probably helped him win that election. At this point, it does nothing.

3. Alabama’s corrupt former governors show up to Governor Kay Ivey’s inauguration

— Two of the most recent scandalized governors Robert Bentley (R) and released felon Don Siegelman (D) were given a place of honor at the swearing-in ceremony of the first female Republican governor in the state’s history.

— Ivey invited the former governors and they joined other governors Bob Riley and Jim Folsom, Jr. near the stage.

2. Governor Ivey is going all in on a gas tax by mentioning it in her Inauguration speech

— Gov. Ivey channeled former Governor Lurleen Wallace (D), who called for funding for roads, saying Monday, “Today, I follow in Gov. Lurleen Wallace’s footsteps in many ways and make the same ask to the members of the Alabama Legislature.”

— In a call for bipartisanship, Ivey called for everyone to come together to get the new higher gas tax passed. She outlined, “If we work on them together – Democrats and Republicans, conservatives and liberals – then today’s challenges can be looked upon as tomorrow’s accomplishments.”

1. The shutdown is now in day 25 as the president rejects Senator Lindsey Graham’s (R-SC) latest ploy to reopen the government

— With no end in sight, the president declared he will “never back down” because he is doing what he pledged, adding, “I’m not interested. I want to get it solved. I don’t want to just delay it. I want to get it solved.”

— Graham urged the president to use an emergency declaration last week. Now, he is calling on Trump to agree to reopen the government for “like three weeks, before he pulls the plug.”

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