WASHINGTON ― It’s still January. We’re just 31 days into the new year.
That’s a simple fact that seems hard to believe if you’ve been paying much attention to the news recently. It’s been... a lot. Did that crazy thing happen last week, or was that the week before? Did you completely forget about that major news event that actually happened only a few days ago? Can you believe that incredible story actually happened THIS MONTH?
HuffPost spoke with a number of sources closely associated with the news. Even they were bewildered that news events actually happened within the calendar month. They described January as “long.”
“What month are we in?” asked one.
Another wondered whether the government shutdown happened in December or January.
“That’s crazy,” said a third person, upon learning that the shutdown was still in effect JUST LAST WEEK.
Here, in reverse chronological order, is a list of just some of the things that actually happened in January 2018. (Did we miss any big political news? We probably did. Email us at scoops@huffpost.com.)
Jan. 31
― The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has stepped down over her tobacco stocks.
— The FBI issued an extraordinary statement taking issue with a Republican-authored memo that Trump supporters have been using the undermine the Mueller probe. The bureau said it had “grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo’s accuracy.”
― The Justice Department decided not the retry Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ).
― Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) said he would not seek re-election.
― A train carrying Republican members of Congress to their legislative retreat collided with a truck.
Jan. 30
― President Donald Trump delivers his first State of the Union address to Congress.
Jan. 29
― FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe steps down after being targeted by Trump and Republicans on Capitol Hill.
― Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee vote to release a four-page memo their own staffers wrote that they’d been using to undermine special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.
― The Trump administration signals it won’t impose new sanctions on Russia and releases a list of Russian “oligarchs” that was cribbed from Forbes.
― Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.), chairman of the powerful Appropriations Committee, becomes the 36th Republican member to announce he will not run for re-election.
Jan. 28
― The president of the United States tweets about Jay Z.
Jan. 27
― Hotel magnate Steve Wynn steps down as finance chairman of the Republican National Committee, facing multiple allegations of sexual misconduct.
― The New York Times reports that Hillary Clinton kept an official on her 2008 presidential campaign even though he was accused of repeatedly harassing a young female aide.
Jan. 26
― A Trump administration pick reportedly wore a fake nose to help her daughter pass her driving test.
― Trump goes to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He is praised for being “presidential” when he successfully reads from a teleprompter but is booed when he criticizes the media as “fake.”
Jan. 25
― Rep. Patrick Meehan (R-Pa.) announces his retirement after it’s revealed that he settled a sexual harassment case brought by a former staffer whom he considered his “soul mate.”
― The New York Times reports that Trump tried to fire Robert Mueller back in July but backed off because his top White House lawyer threatened to quit.
― Fox News host Sean Hannity flip-flops:
Jan. 24
― The chairwoman of the Republican National Committee says a report that Trump asked then-acting FBI Director Andy McCabe whom he voted for in the presidential election is no big deal.
― After floating a conspiracy theory that a “secret society” formed inside the FBI to take down Trump within hours of his 2016 election victory, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) tries to walk it back.
Jan. 23
― Islamophobic comments from a senior White House adviser emerge.
― Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) announces she’s pregnant. She would become the first senator to give birth while in office.
Jan. 22
― There’s a deal to reopen the government. Until Feb. 8, at least.
Jan. 21
― The government remains shut down, and Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) is wearing his comfy clothes on TV:
Jan. 20
― Trump completes one-fourth of his first term in office. He missed his big party.
― The federal government shuts down.
― Women’s marches are held around the country to commemorate the first anniversary of the global event.
― Four months after Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico, much of the island is still without power.
Jan. 19
― In Touch Weekly publishes its 2011 interview with porn star Stormy Daniels, in which she talked in detail about her alleged affair with Trump. Trump’s attorney reportedly paid her $130,000, huge money, to stay quiet about it just ahead of the 2016 election.
― Trump appointee resigns after bigoted comments.
― Trump becomes the first president to address the anti-abortion March for Life live.
Jan. 18
― Justice Department prosecutors drop felony rioting charges against 129 individuals swept up in a mass arrest on the day of Trump’s inauguration. But they say they will put 59 other defendants on trial.
Jan. 17
― Trump, who had earlier in the month said he’d issue “Fake News Awards,” tweets a link to a Republican National Committee page. It crashes.
― Most of a National Park Service advisory board resigns in frustration.
Jan. 16
― The Internet questions the results of Trump’s official medical exam, after which he was declared to be in excellent physical condition.
― The girther movement is born.
― Chris Christie is no longer governor of New Jersey.
― Democrats score an upset victory in a special election in a GOP-held district in Wisconsin.
― The Trump administration won’t deal with transgender student complaints.
― The Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security issue a controversial report on international terrorism that critics call misleading because it omits any acts of domestic terrorism and sensationalizes the issue of honor killings.
― Former White House adviser Steve Bannon testifies before the House Intelligence Committee.
Jan. 15
― Martin Luther King Day. Trump breaks with the presidential tradition of volunteering on this holiday to instead golf.
Jan. 14
― Trump’s Department of Homeland Security secretary is offended that people think Trump is a racist.
Jan. 13
― Hawaii accidentally sends a false ballistic missile alert, sending people into a panic.
Jan. 12
― Trump cancels a trip to London to dedicate a new U.S. embassy. He comes up with an excuse about why, but many people believe it is because he would have faced protests.
― The U.S. ambassador to Panama resigns, saying he can no longer work for Trump.
Jan. 11
― After watching Fox News, the president of the United States tweets this ahead of a House vote on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act:
― Trump’s tweet sets off a scramble. House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) calls him. 101 minutes later, Trump tweets this:
― Later, the House votes to re-authorize FISA.
― Trump reportedly refers to Haiti and African nations as ”“shithole countries.”
― Ecuador grants citizenship to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
Jan. 10
― Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), a longtime member in a competitive district, says he will be resigning after this session.
― After a federal court temporarily rules against his decision to end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals protections, Trump attacks the entire court system as “broken and unfair.”
Jan. 9
- Trump tweets about his support for law enforcement:
― Bannon steps down as executive chairman of the far-right site Breitbart News.
― Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announces that Florida will be exempted from the administration’s new policy allowing offshore drilling. The decision quickly raises questions about the political motivations behind the move.
Jan. 8
― The Trump administration announces the end of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Salvadoran immigrants.
― The country goes nuts thinking Oprah Winfrey might run for president in 2020.
Jan. 7
― White House official Stephen Miller appears on CNN. It doesn’t go well.
The president, however, says it went well and that Jake Tapper “got destroyed.”
Jan. 6
― Trump assures the country he is a “very stable genius.”
Jan. 5
― Attorneys for an unnamed American whom the Trump administration held incommunicado for months tell a court that he’d like to challenge his detention.
― Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury book is released ahead of schedule following a Trump attorney’s cease-and-desist letter attempting to block its dissemination. The book sends the administration into a tailspin over its unflattering portrayal of Trump and his family.
― Mike Rogers of the National Security Agency announces his plan to retire.
Jan. 4
― Trump tweets this about his former chief White House strategist:
― A ceramic bowl gives Republicans control of the Virginia House of Delegates.
― Attorney General Jeff Sessions unleashes federal prosecutors to go after state-legal marijuana by revoking an Obama-era memo.
― Under Sessions, federal prosecutors unseal terrorism-related charges against a white supremacist. They don’t tell anyone.
― A year after he claimed millions of people voted illegally in the 2016 election, Trump ends his voter fraud commission.
Jan. 3
― A Trump associate who testified before Mueller’s grand jury complains there were too many black people on it.
― Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) announces that he will retire.
― Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, facing a variety of criminal charges, files a lawsuit challenging the appointment of special counsel Mueller.
― Trump writes a blistering statement going after his former top aide, Steve Bannon, for comments that appeared in a new book looking at the inner workings of the White House.
― Democrats Doug Jones (Ala.) and Tina Smith (Minn.) are sworn into the U.S. Senate.
Jan. 2
― Minnesota Democrat Al Franken resigns from the Senate over sexual harassment allegations.
― The president of the United States of America tweets this:
Jan. 1
― California legalizes weed.
― The country quietly hopes this year will be less crazy than 2017.