In today’s newsletter: Democrats draw a hard line on funding as they seek to rein in ICE. The FBI says there’s no ongoing communication between Nancy Guthrie’s family and her suspected abductor. And Lindsey Vonn on the crash that ended her Olympics.
Here's what to know today.
Backlash to Trump emboldens Democrats on DHS and ICE
Americans are souring on the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, complicating an already messy dynamic on Capitol Hill as Democrats are more emboldened to draw a hard line against another short-term funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security.
Days before funding runs out on Friday, key members of the Senate Democratic Caucus say they won’t support another continuing resolution to prevent a DHS shutdown. This includes members who voted with Republicans to reopen the government last fall. “What ICE is doing is unconscionable, and it’s got to be reined in. I can’t, in good conscience, vote for it,” said Sen. Angus King, a Maine independent who caucuses with Democrats.
King said the situation is different now because most of the government is already funded. “So if DHS isn’t funded, you’re talking about ICE and TSA and the Coast Guard and FEMA” being shut down, he said. “It’s not the same as it was in the fall, where you were talking about food stamps, support for research and development, medical care, all of those things.”
A Quinnipiac University poll, conducted from Jan. 29 to Feb. 2, found 38% of registered voters approve of President Donald Trump’s handling of immigration issues, compared with 59% who disapprove. In addition, 63% said they disapprove of ICE.
How Democrats plan to use their leverage this week.
More politics news:
- Members of Congress are fleeing the job, with the highest number of retirements this century.
- The Department of Justice moved to dismiss its long-running criminal case against Steve Bannon. The longtime Trump ally had previously appealed his 2022 conviction to the Supreme Court.
- Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell refused to answer questions from the House Oversight Committee yesterday, but her attorney said she would speak “fully” if Trump grants her clemency.
- More than a year after Attorney General Pam Bondi created a “Weaponization Working Group” meant to root out “abuses” by federal law enforcement officers in their investigations of Trump, the DOJ is still scrambling to produce a report.
- Vice President JD Vance landed in Armenia — a country that no sitting U.S. vice president or president has visited before — as the Trump administration offered economic opportunities while it works to advance a U.S.-brokered deal aimed at ending a decades-long conflict with Azerbaijan.
Olympics recap: What you missed and what to watch
Skier Lindsey Vonn said she’ll need multiple operations on her leg after crashing during competition when her arm hooked inside one of the gates. She added that her earlier ACL tear “had nothing to do” with her fall. Her father, a former skier, said he believes her latest crash marks “the end of her career.”
After Trump criticized Olympic snowboarder Hunter Hess for expressing mixed feelings about representing the U.S. during a period of immigration crackdown, snowboarder Chloe Kim expressed support for her teammate when asked about the incident.
“We are allowed to voice our opinions on what’s going on, and I think that we need to lead with love and compassion, and I would love to see some more of that,” she said.
After winning gold in the team event, “Quad God” Ilia Malinin will begin his men’s short program today as the man to beat. And the U.S. and Canadian women’s ice hockey teams will face off in the group stage in one of the Games’ biggest rivalries.
Today’s medal events include a gold medal curling game between the U.S. and Sweden, and the women’s team combined alpine skiing, which pairs downhill champ Breezy Johnson and two-time winner Mikaela Shiffrin for the new Olympic event. Today’s winners might want to take particular care of their medals, however. Some athletes have said theirs fell apart during celebrations.
Follow live updates on our blog, see today’s full schedule here, and sign up for The Sports Desk newsletter to get dispatches from Milan and Cortino, along with profiles capturing athletes’ amazing journeys to the Games.
More sports news:
- Another Super Bowl meme emerged on Sunday: halftime show performers dressed as bundles of grass to create a sugarcane maze on the field for Bad Bunny’s set. One superfan recounted what it was like to bundle up.
Savannah Guthrie appeals to public for help
Savannah Guthrie made an appeal to the public for help in the search for her mother Nancy, who has been missing for more than a week, in what she described as the family’s “hour of desperation.”
In an Instagram video yesterday, the “TODAY” co-host thanked people for their prayers and said, “We believe our mom is still out there.”
FBI officials said that they are not aware of any continued communication between the Guthrie family and suspected kidnappers and have not identified a suspect or person of interest.
Follow the latest in our liveblog.
Read All About It
- Catherine O’Hara died from a blood clot in her lungs as a result of rectal cancer, according to newly unsealed medical examiner records.
- A toddler hospitalized with respiratory failure was returned to ICE detention and denied prescribed medication, according to a new lawsuit.
- Venezuelans who were sent to a Salvadoran prison can be returned to the U.S. with a court order, DOJ says.
- A U.S. immigration court has terminated the Trump administration’s attempt to deport a Tufts University student and pro-Palestinian activist who has been critical of Israel, her lawyers said.
- Target will restructure parts of its organization and cut hundreds of supply chain-operations jobs as new CEO Michael Fiddelke takes the reins.
- A cup (or two or three) of coffee or tea a day helps keep dementia away. So could a brain training game.
Staff Pick: Meet the youngest member of Team USA at the Milan Cortina Olympics
How were you spending the winter you turned 15? Chances are, not competing at the Olympics like Abby Winterberger of Truckee, California.
The freestyle skier is the youngest member of Team USA at the Milan Cortina Olympics, and the second youngest American to ever qualify in her event. I wanted to meet her because making it this far not only constitutes a sports story, but also one of dedication and sacrifice — Winterberger doesn’t go to high school with her friends because she travels nearly year-round, for instance.
Winterberger was so low-key during our interview that I marked how unaffected she seemed. That’s just because it has not fully hit her yet she was an Olympian, she said, calling the experience “definitely really cool.”
— Andrew Greif, reporter
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