By Betsy Klein, Jeff Zeleny, CNN

(CNN) — Every year, the nation’s governors convene in Washington, DC, for a friendly winter confab that includes a working meeting at the White House and a black-tie dinner hosted by the president.

This year, President Donald Trump is adjusting the guest list for the long, bipartisan tradition. Democratic governors have been excluded from the business meeting, and two of those governors, Wes Moore of Maryland and Jared Polis of Colorado, were not invited to the dinner, according to a source familiar with the matter.

“We are disappointed in the administration’s decision to make it a partisan occasion this year,” interim National Governors Association CEO Brandon Tatum said in a statement.

He added: “To disinvite individual governors to the White House sessions undermines an important opportunity for federal-state collaboration.”

The decision to exclude Democrats from the working session at the White House marks a break in tradition from presidents of both parties.

With Moore and Polis disinvited from the dinner, two Democratic officials said several governors were re-evaluating whether they planned to attend.

The Colorado and Maryland governors have both publicly tangled with and criticized Trump. But other Democrats who have openly quarreled with the administration, like Gov. Gavin Newsom of California and Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois, were extended invitations.

Pritzker was not expecting to go to the White House anyway, aides said, citing his ongoing clashes with Trump in the wake of immigration enforcement actions in his state last year.

Polis and Moore were not informed of their exclusion or given a reason by the White House, two sources familiar with the matter said.

A spokesperson for Polis called the exclusion a “disappointing decision.”

“Gov. Polis has always been willing to work with anyone across the political spectrum who wants to help work on the hardest problems facing Colorado and America, regardless of party or who occupies the White House,” spokesperson Shelby Wieman said in a statement.

The White House and the Democratic Governors Association did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment Friday night. CNN has reached out to Moore for comment.

The annual winter meeting of the nation’s governors – long a bipartisan event focused more on policy than politics – comes as tensions have been escalating between governors and their national association.

Illinois is among the states that have stopped paying their dues to the group, after it did not speak out against the Trump administration’s decision to send National Guard troops to the state last year without coordination with Pritzker.

“The protection of gubernatorial authority and state sovereignty must always be demanded, regardless of who is occupying the White House,” a spokesman for Pritzker said. “Governor Pritzker has been vocal that the National Governors Association as a whole should stand against the deployment of National Guard troops against a governor’s wishes.”

Still, the association on Friday characterized the situation as a failure of executive branch leadership.

“NGA will remain focused on serving all governors as they deliver solutions and model leadership for the American people. Traditionally the White House has played a role in fostering these moments during NGA’s annual meeting. This ye

CNN

By Kevin Liptak, Adam Cancryn, Alayna Treene, Alejandra Jaramillo, Betsy Klein, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump refused to apologize Friday after posting and then deleting a racist video depicting former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes in a jungle, insisting he hadn’t seen the final frames containing the offensive content and blaming a staffer for the mistake.

The explanation, offered to reporters on Air Force One, was the first acknowledgement that Trump himself had screened at least part of the video that had thrown the White House into damage control mode for most of the day. The White House said earlier, after the video was removed, that a staffer had posted it in error.

The video was posted late Thursday night — and remained online for nearly 12 hours — before the White House took it down amid bipartisan outrage, including from close Trump allies. The president, however, insisted Friday evening the video was taken down “as soon as we found out about it.”

“I looked at the beginning of it. It was fine,” he said, referring to the first part of the video that contained debunked claims about fraud in voting machines.

“It was a very strong post in terms of voter fraud,” he went on. “Nobody knew that that was in the end. If they would have looked, they would have seen it, and probably they would have had the sense to take it down.”

Trump said after he watched the first section of the video, he passed it on to a staffer, who he said should have watched it to the end.

“Somebody slipped and missed a very small part,” he said.

But when asked directly whether he would apologize amid GOP calls to do so, he declined.

“No,” he said. “I didn’t make a mistake.”

When pressed, Trump said he condemned the racist portion of the clip. “Of course I do,” he said.

And asked later whether the video could hurt Republicans’ standing with Black voters, the president said no and defended his achievements.

“I am, by the way, the least racist president you’ve had in a long time,” he said.

GOP backlash

The White House’s statement blaming a staffer came after serious backlash, including from GOP Sen. Tim Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate, who called the post racist and said Trump should remove it.

“Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House. The President should remove it,” the South Carolina Republican, who’s also the chair of the Senate GOP campaign committee, wrote on X.

Trump and Scott spoke about the video on Friday morning before it was deleted from the president’s feed, Trump told reporters.

The White House had earlier defended the post and downplayed the response to the video, calling it “fake outrage.” But just before noon, an official told CNN, “A White House staffer erroneously made the post. It has been taken down.” A GOP Senate official said Republican lawmakers had called Trump

By Aleena Fayaz, CNN

(CNN) — A federal judge in New York ruled Friday that the Trump administration must unfreeze more than $16 billion earmarked for a major New York infrastructure project and allow construction to continue, saying that public interest would be “harmed by a delay.”

The temporary restraining order granted by US District Judge Jeanette Vargas in the Southern District of New York comes as President Donald Trump has withheld the funding meant for the long-planned project connecting New York and New Jersey through a new rail tunnel beneath the Hudson River.

Vargas said in a court filing that the states of New York and New Jersey would “suffer irreparable harm” if the Trump administration continued to withhold the funding for the project.

“Plaintiffs have adequately shown that the public interest would be harmed by a delay in a critical infrastructure project,” she wrote.

CNN has reached out to the White House for comment.

CNN previously reported Trump told Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer last month that he was prepared to drop his freeze on the funding under the condition that Schumer agree to rename New York’s Penn Station and Washington’s Dulles International Airport after Trump.

The president told reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday night it was Schumer’s idea to rename Penn Station to “Trump station.”

Schumer immediately dismissed Trump’s claim and accused him of lying about the details of their conversation.

“Absolute lie. He knows it. Everyone knows it. Only one man can restart the project and he can restart it with the snap of his fingers,” Schumer wrote on X.

The commission in charge of the tunnel project previously warned that it would soon have to shut down work on the project and lay off roughly 1,000 workers if the Trump administration does not release the funding it needs.

New York Attorney General Letitia James, who sued the Trump administration earlier this month, celebrated the ruling as a “critical victory for workers and commuters in New York and New Jersey.”

“I am grateful the court acted quickly to block this senseless funding freeze, which threatened to derail a project our entire region depends on. The Hudson Tunnel Project is one of the most important infrastructure projects in the nation, and we will keep fighting to ensure construction can continue without unnecessary federal interference,” James said in a statement.

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VANDENBERG SPACE FORCE BASE, Calif. – SpaceX plans open a launch window at 9:05 a.m. Saturday for 25 Starlink satellites in support of a Falcon 9 Rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base

Central Coast residents may feel the sonic boom from the launch's impact.

Following stage separation, the first stage will land on the Of Course I Still Love You droneship in the Pacific Ocean.

Live webcasts of the mission will be available 10 minutes before liftoff on both the Space X website and social media page.

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