Pence looks flushed as ‘hole’ hoo-ha hits him in the pews

Anyone hear an amen?

There are times when Donald Trump’s sidekick, Mike Pence, finds it best to fade into the background rather than me-too the boss’ most outlandish words.

The vice president probably figured he was in a safe space Sunday, in the pews for worship services at the Metropolitan Baptist Church in Largo, Maryland. Then Senior Pastor Maurice Watson delivered his sermon.

Watson called “dehumanizing” and “ugly” the president’s reportedly vulgar description in an immigration meeting of African nations and Haiti — the homelands of some members of the congregation, Washington TV station WUSA reported (video here).

“I stand today as your pastor to vehemently denounce and reject any such characterizations of the nations of Africa, and of our brothers and sisters in Haiti,” Watson said. He went on to call for the president to be held accountable for his words.

WUSA reported that churchgoers described Pence as becoming “visibly red-faced at times” during the sermon. Pence’s office denied that to The Associated Press.

Also piling on

Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York deplored the Trump comment in a tweet remembering the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

“You so powerfully upheld the dignity of every human person, made in God’s image and likeness,” Dolan said of King. “You would remind us today that no country is a ‘hole,’ no person unworthy of respect.”

Mitt Romney, a Republican Trump critic, tweeted: “The poverty of an aspiring immigrant’s nation of origin is as irrelevant as their race. The sentiment attributed to POTUS is inconsistent w/ America’s history and antithetical to American values.”

DACA shame

A Trump tweet targeted Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who went public with his account of Trump describing countries he considered undesirable sources of immigrants as “shithole countries.”

“Senator Dicky Durbin totally misrepresented what was said at the DACA meeting” last week. “Deals can’t get made when there is no trust! Durbin blew DACA and is hurting our Military.”

Durbin said he stood by “every word” of his story, Newsday’s Laura Figueroa Hernandez reports. If the White House has recordings of the meeting, it should release them, he said.

The Washington Post reporter who broke the story tweeted he was told by a White House official that some people there think Trump’s bad word ended with “-house,” not “-hole,” and that was the basis for GOP Sens. Tom Cotton (Ark.) and David Perdue (Ga.) to back up the “-hole” denial.

Other Republican senators have said or implied the original story is correct.

Janison: What a relief

Trump didn’t reach out to Hawaiians who saw their lives and those of loved ones flashing before their eyes Saturday because of a false alert of an imminent nuclear missile attack.

But the president seems happy state officials accepted blame and said the federal government will “get involved with them,” without elaborating, Newsday’s Dan Janison writes.

By all accounts, the president, who was on the golf course in Florida when panic struck, had White House aides do the appropriate notifying, responding and internal discussing.

Latest 'shutdown' throwdown

Mdnight Friday marks another deadline for the federal government's legal authority to spend money.

Obstacles to an immigration deal could deny the Democratic votes needed in the GOP-controlled Congress to allow any temporary spending extension. Such denials have been averted  as recently as last month. 

Ain’t that sweet

The No. 2 House Republican, Kevin McCarthy of California, has ingratiated himself with Trump, in part by indulging the president’s fondness for Starburst candies, and only the cherry and strawberry ones, The Washington Post reports.

McCarthy noticed on an Air Force One flight that Trump picked out his two favorite varieties of the chewy candy and left the others behind. Soon, McCarthy was buying Starbursts, having a staffer sort through them to toss aside the flavors out of favor and sent a gift jar with his name on it to Trump.

What else is happening

• Trump spent Martin Luther King Jr. Day at one of his Florida golf courses.
• U.S. counterintelligence officials last year warned Jared Kushner that Wendi Deng Murdoch could be using her close friendship with Kushner and Ivanka Trump to further Chinese government interests, The Wall Street Journal (pay site) reported. Murdoch is the ex-wife of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who owns the Journal.
• Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) plans a Senate floor speech Wednesday to compare Trump’s attacks on the news media to the rhetoric of late Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. Trump’s delayed “Fake News Awards” are now due that day.
• About 500 Haitian-Americans and their supporters held a protest near Mar-a-Lago over Trump’s derogatory comments about immigration from majority-black countries.
• Former Trump campaign managerCorey Lewandowski takes his turn as a witness in the Russia investigations on Capitol Hill this week. Also headed to the witness chair: Steve Bannon.