Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) announced Friday that she will be resigning from office in January.
Said Greene: “I ran for Congress in 2020 and have fought every single day believing that Make America Great Again meant America First. However, with almost one year into our majority, the legislature has been mostly sidelined.”
“The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday temporarily blocked a lower court court ruling that found Texas’ 2026 congressional redistricting plan likely discriminates on the basis of race,” the AP reports.
“The order signed by Justice Samuel Alito will remain in place at least for the next few days while the court considers whether to allow the new map favorable to Republicans to be used in the midterm elections.”
“Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman emerged from a White House visit this week as, in President Trump’s view, the undisputed leader of the Arab world,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“No Arab leader in recent memory has received such a lavish welcome from an American president—including a red-carpet welcome, a parade of horses and a black-tie dinner—and certainly not an authoritarian leader with such a scrutinized human-rights record. In the Oval Office, Trump even defended Mohammed from questions about the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, which the Central Intelligence Agency concluded was orchestrated by him.”
“Crowning the visit: the designation of Riyadh as a major non-NATO ally and a promise that the U.S. would sell Saudi Arabia its most advanced jet fighter, the F-35.”
So far, just 17% of the weekly news quiz takers have gotten every question right. Can you compete?
President Trump’s Golden Dome missile defense initiative is facing significant delays, hampered by the 43-day government shutdown and lack of a clear plan to spend the first $25 billion appropriated for the program this summer, Reuters reports.
“I think you’re going to have hopefully a really great mayor. The better he does, the happier I am, I will say.”
— President Trump, speaking to reporters about his meeting with New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani.
“President Trump is scheduled to have his first meeting with Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist mayor-elect of New York City whom the president routinely mis-characterizes as a ‘communist,'” the New York Times reports.
“It’s anybody’s guess how the meeting will play out, particularly since the two men have spent months criticizing each other, with Mamdani calling Trump a ‘despot,’ and the president threatening New York City’s federal funding. On the other hand, Mamdani is famously charming, and the president is not immune to charisma.”
Axios: “Business and bureaucrats found a workaround for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s order to personally review every contract over $100,000: Since August, DHS has awarded 11 new contracts between $99,999 and $99,999.99.”
Former Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) announced he will not be running for Ohio governor, the Ohio Capital Journal reports.
“I’ll go when you go, OK? … If I may borrow a phrase from you: Quiet, Piggy!”
— Jimmy Kimmel, responding to new calls from Donald Trump that he be fired.
Congressional Republicans have summoned Bill and Hillary Clinton to appear for depositions next month in front of a panel investigating Jeffrey Epstein, USA Today reports.
Richard Haass: “I am just back from the nation’s capital, where I went to attend the memorial service for Dick Cheney at the National Cathedral. It was good to hear the tributes to an individual committed to public service, and the image of two former presidents (Bush and Biden) along with three former vice presidents (Gore, Pence, and Harris) sitting together comfortably made for a welcome reminder of another Washington.”
“The absence of anyone from the Trump administration underscored that the principal divide in today’s Washington is less between Republicans and Democrats than it is between traditionalists prepared to work within the existing political system and radicals who favor breaking long-standing norms and policies.”
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told the New York Times that he personally instructed the CDC to abandon its longstanding position that vaccines do not cause autism — “a move that underscores his determination to challenge scientific orthodoxy and bend the health department to his will.”
President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the Ukrainian people on Friday and said President Trump’s 28-point peace plan will force Ukraine to choose between “losing our dignity” or risking the loss of U.S. support, Axios reports.
The plan would force Ukraine to accept harsh concessions, including the loss of even more territory than Russia currently controls.
“Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted co-conspirator of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, will refuse to answer questions in the House Oversight Committee’s probe into Epstein and the Justice Department’s handling of the case,” Politico reports.
The Department of Justice signaled Friday that former national security adviser John Bolton could face additional charges in his criminal case over allegedly mishandled classified documents, The Hill reports.
“Wall Street is now looking past President Trump’s policy proposals meant to address the affordability crisis, from stimulus checks to 50-year-mortgages,” Axios reports.
“Market participants doubt whether the recent ideas will go anywhere and, if they do, whether they would actually address the problems of affordability.”
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.
