“Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday was given a final copy of the completed Defense Department Inspector General report that examined his sharing sensitive military information on a Signal group chat back in March,” NBC News reports.
“The much-anticipated report is expected to become public as early as this week.”
Bloomberg just published an excellent documentary that takes a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to argue a case before the Supreme Court.
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“A new Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, will target undocumented Somali immigrants, as the president has ramped up attacks against the community in recent days,” CNN reports.
“Lawrence Summers has been banned for life by the American Economics Association in a further blow to the former Treasury Secretary and Harvard University president stemming from recent revelations about his ties to the late Jeffrey Epstein,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
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It’s highly recommended.
“President Donald Trump argued Tuesday that former special counsel Jack Smith’s final report — chronicling the criminal case against him for hoarding classified documents at Mar-a-Lago — should never be made public,” Politico reports.
“President Donald Trump appeared to be having difficulty staying awake as members of his Cabinet took turns singing his praises on Tuesday,” the Daily Beast reports.
“Trump frequently leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes as his secretaries told him how well he was doing.”
President Trump suggested that the rising cost of living in the United States is a “fake narrative” that is being pushed by Democrats, PBS reports.
Said Trump: “The word ‘affordability’ is a con job by the Democrats.”
“President Trump unleashed a xenophobic tirade against Somali immigrants on Tuesday, calling them ‘garbage’ he does not want in the United States as he tried to refocus public attention on his anti-immigration themes,” the New York Times reports.
Said Trump: “When they come from hell and they complain and do nothing but bitch, we don’t want them in our country. Let them go back to where they came from and fix it.”
As Trump spoke, Vice President JD Vance banged the table in encouragement.
“I do think there have to be consequences for abject war crimes. If you’re doing something that is just completely unlawful and ruthless, then there is a consequence for that. That’s why the military said it won’t follow unlawful orders from their commander in chief. There’s a standard, there’s an ethos. There’s a belief that we are above what so many things that our enemies or others would do.”
— Pete Hegseth, quoted by CNN in 2016.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) “is pushing forward with a discharge petition to circumvent Speaker Mike Johnson and force a vote on a congressional stock trading ban,” Politico reports.
“The politically explosive topic is still divisive among House Republicans, but broadly popular with the public.”
“The power’s going out of Trump by the minute. You can just feel it oozing out.”
— James Carville, on The Daily Beast Podcast.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) will run for re-election to the House next year, forgoing a run for Senate and a challenge to incumbent Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), the Boston Globe reports.
During a long phone call on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked President Trump for more support in his push for a pardon from Israel’s president, Axios reports.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth struck a defiant tone Tuesday, telling reporters during a Cabinet meeting that the military has “only just begun” sinking “narco-terrorists” to “the bottom of the ocean,” Axios reports.
Associated Press: Hegseth cites “fog of war” in defending follow-on strike in scrutinized attack on alleged drug boat.
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.
