“Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford is considering three paths to political redemption — a run for his old House seat, a campaign for the governor’s mansion he once occupied or a primary bid against Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham,” Axios reports.
“A critic of President Trump’s who lost his congressional seat in a 2018 primary to a Trump-backed candidate, Sanford is a politician in search of an office.”
So far, just 17% of today’s quiz takers have gotten every question right.
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President Trump said on Truth Social he doesn’t need Congress to get voter ID in place by the midterm elections.
Said Trump: “The Democrats refuse to vote for Voter I.D., or Citizenship. The reason is very simple — They want to continue to cheat in Elections. This was not what our Founders desired. I have searched the depths of Legal Arguments not yet articulated or vetted on this subject, and will be presenting an irrefutable one in the very near future. There will be Voter I.D. for the Midterm Elections, whether approved by Congress or not!“
CNBC: “The apparent shift is underway as Trump, the Republican Party’s undisputed leader, grapples with stubbornly low approval ratings — especially on the economy, a perennial issue on which he was elected that has only grown more important to Americans chafing under high prices.”
President Trump boasted again about a secret U.S. “discombobulator” weapon that can block Russian and Chinese defense systems, as he met the elite troops who captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, the South China Morning Post reports.
Said Trump: “They even talk about the discombobulator, because they never got a shot off.”
He added: “The Russian equipment didn’t work. The Chinese equipment didn’t work. Everyone’s trying to figure out why it didn’t work. Someday you’re going to find out, but it didn’t work.”
Bloomberg: “The dynamics aren’t much different than in previous shutdowns under President Donald Trump. Democrats are making their votes dependent on policy changes — limits on immigration enforcement operations — that are being resisted by Republicans.”
“But this time, Democrats are seizing on what appears to be a genuine moment of leverage after the widespread outrage over the killings of two US citizens in Minnesota by federal agents during immigration enforcement operations.”
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) said that Kevin Warsh will have to decide whether he would like to proceed with his Fed chair nomination process because of potential impacts to his business life amid the senator’s pledge to oppose the confirmation of any nominee to the central bank until the Justice Department resolves its investigation into Chairman Jerome Powell, CBS News reports.
“President Donald Trump spent the past year using fear and intimidation to keep Hill Republicans in line, with considerable success. Now those tactics are starting to lose their bite — thanks to a small group of Republicans with nothing to lose,” Politico reports.
“The reasons why this handful of GOP lawmakers feel empowered to spurn their president and their party vary. But they are launching mini-rebellions with increasing frequency. It’s causing headaches for party leaders who want to keep tight control of the legislative agenda in an election year and anxiety among rank-and-file Republicans who are facing intense pressure to stick with Trump.”
ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons said that two federal agents appear to have lied about an incident last month in Minneapolis that ended with one of them shooting a Venezuelan immigrant in the leg, Politico reports.
The two officers are under investigation by the Justice Department.
“Zelensky has to get moving. Russia wants to make a deal. He has to get moving or he’s going to miss a great opportunity.”
— President Trump, talking to reporters.
“A federal judge ruled Thursday that the Trump administration has been violating the rights of people detained by ICE in Minnesota, saying the agency had stashed them in an ill-equipped, overcrowded facility without access to attorneys,” Politico reports.
“The Trump administration sued Harvard University on Friday, accusing the Ivy League school of failing to produce documents sought as part of a Justice Department investigation into whether its admissions process discriminates against white applicants,” the New York Times reports.
New York Times: “The Capitol emptied out on Thursday, a full day before the midnight Friday deadline for funding the Department of Homeland Security. Lawmakers who were deadlocked over new restrictions on immigration officers jetted off to Munich for a security conference or headed home for a weeklong recess, seemingly unconcerned with the looming closure.”
“It was a jarring change from the past, when lawmakers were reluctant to seem like they were giving up for even a moment before time ran out for a deal.”
Said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), as she headed for Germany: “We are not even going to pretend that we are trying to figure it out. It doesn’t look great.”
Sports analyst Stephen A. Smith continues to tease a potential presidential run, adding that while he has “no desire” to be a politician or run for office, he’s not ruling it out, Deadline reports.
Said Smith: “I’d love to be on the debate stages against some of these individuals that think they’re better suited to run the country. Because I think that the American people deserve to listen to and hear from somebody who genuinely cares about making life better for them instead of yourself.”
He said he would run as a Democrat.
“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement expects to spend $38.3 billion on its plan to acquire warehouses across the country and retrofit them into immigrant detention centers that can hold tens of thousands of immigrants,” the Washington Post reports.
Jonathan Chait says President Trump’s closure of a trade route from Detroit to Windsor will help a billionaire and hurt basically everyone else.
“This episode is a prototypical demonstration of Trump’s economic worldview. Faced with a policy choice that pits the interests of millions of people against the wealth of a single rent seeker, Trump has intervened in a way that benefits the billionaire.”
Nancy Youssef and Vivian Salama: “The Trump administration had been considering its military options, which ranged from targeting leaders to hitting Iran’s nuclear program. But officials discovered that the U.S. could not conduct a major offensive as quickly as they had hoped without real risks to American forces, support from allies, and regional stability, two U.S. officials told us.”
“Even though Trump has boasted about a ‘massive Armada’ sprinting toward Iran, the U.S. does not have enough ships and planes in the region to conduct weeks of strikes, the officials said. It also does not have clear targets: The White House has yet to outline to military commanders what it would want to achieve through strikes, the officials said, suggesting that the use of force is not imminent.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
