Martin Pengelly

WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security remains shut down, but you wouldn’t know it from walking around the U.S. Capitol, where the Epstein files and President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address are the talk of elected officials.

The silence as the DHS shutdown drags into its third week is, in part, because House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune have, once again, outsourced their constitutionally-mandated spending powers to President Trump.

“I'm getting quite used to this. Republican leadership isn't really leading,” Rep. Rick Larsen (D-WA) told Raw Story. ...

WASHINGTON — Border czar Tom Homan’s goodwill tour continues, but members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus aren’t buying it.

In Minneapolis on Thursday, Homan — who as an aide to President Donald Trump has vowed to “run the biggest deportation force this country has ever seen” — announced the end of the immigration crackdown that has upended the city and roiled the nation.

On Capitol Hill, Homan’s claim that ICE is pulling out, after federal agents killed two protesters in three weeks, was met with suspicion from leading members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. ...

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump’s connections with the former Prince Andrew are “very close,” a biographer of the disgraced British royal said, rejecting Trump’s denials and saying evidence of the relationship had been taken out of files relating to investigations of Jeffrey Epstein released by the U.S. Department of Justice.

“The connections with Trump are very close,” Andrew Lownie said. “I mean, clearly this stuff's been taken out of the released papers, but Andrew and Trump had a very close relationship.

“Same interest in golf, making money, in women, there are lots of crossovers between them and lots of ‘locker room discussions’ going on. I mean, when Trump says he doesn't know who Andrew is, there are plenty of pictures of the two of them together. That kind of says everything.”...

WASHINGTON — Some Americans digging out from ferocious winter storms are more concerned about Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents abusing power than with their own plight, a senior member of Congress said.

“In my district, you know, we had a bad ice storm,” Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) told Raw Story on the Capitol steps on a sunny if frigid Tuesday.

“As I talk to local officials about getting the utilities back on and making sure there's warming centers available and all that, in the midst of that, they talk about ICE. ‘What y'all gonna do about ICE?’” ...

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s erratic behavior on the world stage — threatening to seize Greenland from Denmark, making rambling speeches and attacking key NATO allies at Davos — was just business as usual, a prominent moderate Republican insisted.

“Eleven years of this, have people not figured it out?” Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) told Raw Story at the Capitol.

The U.S. will benefit “if the end result is that he gets greater access, increased military presence” in Greenland, Lawler said, bemoaning the media’s “pandemonium” coverage of a head-spinning week....