A new Reuters/Ipsos poll suggests that Republicans hold a greater advantage with older voters, who “may be less swayed by the kind of cost-of-living issues that have animated recent Democratic campaigns.”
The survey found that 46% of voters aged 50 and older said they planned to vote for the Republican running in their congressional district, while 38% said they would vote Democrat.
“The U.S. is preparing to intercept more ships transporting Venezuelan oil following the seizure of a tanker this week, as it increases pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro,” Reuters reports.
“The seizure has put shipowners, operators and maritime agencies involved in transporting Venezuelan crude on alert, with many reconsidering whether to sail from Venezuelan waters in the coming days as planned.”
Three members of President Trump’s Cabinet — Kristi Noem, Pete Hegseth and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — have become the target of impeachment threats in recent weeks, Axios reports.
“Democrats have, until very recently, been timid about impeachment, which would be unlikely to pass in either chamber. But the base has been urging Dems to act more combatively against Trump and his administration.”
Punchbowl News: House Democrats brace for impeachment vote.
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“After the U.S. military seized a large crude oil tanker off the Venezuelan coast, President Donald Trump suggested the ship’s contents could remain in U.S. possession,” CNBC reports.
Said Trump: “Well, we keep it, I guess.”
“The Senate rejected dueling health care bills Thursday, all but guaranteeing that Obamacare subsidies used by more than 20 million Americans will lapse at the end of the year,” Politico reports.
“With little to no public discussion or debate, the Republican-led Michigan House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday voted to discontinue nearly $645 million in funding for ongoing programs across multiple state departments,” the Detroit News reports.
“The 78 program cuts are all ones included in the 2025 fiscal year budget, which was passed under Democratic control last year. The cuts include roughly $18.5 million in funding for a prenatal and infant support program, nearly $165 million in earmarks and more than $17 million for museums and symphonies across the state.”
Olivia Nuzzi’s new book American Canto sold only 1,165 hardcover copies in its first week on the shelves, Politico reports.
The book was savaged in reviews, with the New York Times calling it “self-serious and altogether disappointing” and the Washington Post writing that she “tries and fails to save her reputation in the book.”
One publishing industry insider called it a “publishing debacle of epic proportions.”
“After demolishing the White House’s East Wing, President Donald Trump is now eying four federal buildings for the same treatment and is circumventing a key government agency with his plans,” CNN reports.
Oliver Darcy: “Once upon a time, a chief executive openly signaling that he’d reorient a newsroom to appease a sitting president would be a five-alarm corporate scandal, the sort of fire that would send the company’s public relations teams sprinting through the hallways to extinguish.”
“Indeed, the notion that Ellison would assure the president that he would overhaul the news network’s editorial posture to be more obedient to him and his administration should be a downright scandal that Paramount would seek to address. As one veteran media executive confided to me, ‘This is Pravda style stuff’—the playbook of Russian oligarchs, not aspiring Hollywood moguls hoping to buy themselves a sprawling entertainment conglomerate that houses an iconic global news network.”
“Maryland Democrat David Trone, a former three-term House lawmaker who left his seat to launch an ill-fated Senate run in 2024, is making a play for his old job in a primary challenge against first-term Rep. April McClain Delaney,” Politico reports.
“South Carolina’s measles outbreak is ‘accelerating’ in the wake of Thanksgiving travel and a lack of vaccinations, after authorities traced a sizable outbreak to a church in the state’s northwest,” the Washington Post reports.
“Denmark’s military intelligence service raised concerns for the first time about the United States in its annual threat assessment, saying in a report released Wednesday that shifts in American policy are generating new uncertainties for Denmark’s security,” the New York Times reports.
“The report points to the United States’ use of tariffs against allies and its intensified activity in the Arctic, and raises many of the same concerns that European leaders have voiced about the direction of President Trump’s America-first foreign policy.”
“Almost 400 people pardoned or granted clemency by President Donald Trump in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol are now seeking millions of dollars in payouts from the federal government,” Bloomberg reports.
“Attorney Mark McCloskey on Wednesday delivered hundreds of claims in person, wheeling a cart with five bankers’ boxes into a Justice Department office building in Washington. The St. Louis-based lawyer declined to share copies, citing his clients’ privacy, but said most are seeking $1 million to $10 million for alleged injuries and property damage during their arrest, prosecution and, in many cases, imprisonment.”
“Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky floated the prospect of putting the issue of territorial control in the country’s east to a referendum as Kyiv comes under mounting pressure to agree to terms of an emerging peace plan to end Russia’s war,” Bloomberg reports.
“Moscow has insisted that Ukraine withdraw its forces from the eastern Donbas, which includes areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions that the Russian military has failed to capture in its nearly four-year invasion.”
“Zelenskiy has engaged in talks over the latest peace proposal from President Donald Trump’s administration, but has maintained his position that Ukraine won’t consider surrendering territory to the Kremlin.”
“Democrats are at odds over a Republican-led discharge petition to ban stock trading by members of Congress, with some insisting any prohibition should also apply to the executive branch,” The Hill reports.
“It marks the latest complication on an issue that has vexed Congress for years and fueled multiple unsuccessful attempts at reform.”
A federal judge in Maryland ordered the “immediate release” of Kilmar Abrego García from Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, saying Justice Department attorneys “misled” the court at a hearing last month, the Washington Post reports.
“We should be bringing in the best and brightest, and that’s what Donald Trump is changing about our immigration system. Let’s expedite the best and brightest who are gonna give a million dollars to the US to prove they’re at the top of the list.”
— Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, on CNBC.
“The Trump administration jettisoned a plan to honor the abolition of slavery, women’s suffrage and the civil-rights movement on quarters for the nation’s 250th birthday,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Those themes were part of a proposed five-quarter special series that went through years of debate and design but was never officially announced by the U.S. Mint. They were replaced with images inspired by the Mayflower Compact, the Revolutionary War and the Gettysburg Address.”
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.
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