“There was no pressure put on them whatsoever. I put no pressure on them whatsoever. I could have. I think it might probably, possibly have been okay if I did, but I didn’t.”
— President Trump, quoted by ABC News, on his phone call with Ukraine’s president about investigating Joe Biden and his son.
Michael Kruse: “That Trump would so quickly in the wake of the Mueller investigation commit a brazen act some critics say represents an egregious and impeachable abuse of power has mystified many observers. How could he have so blithely ignored the lessons of the nearly three-year investigation?”
“But those who know him best say this is merely the latest episode in a lifelong pattern of behavior for the congenitally combative Trump. He’s always been this way. He doesn’t stop to reflect. If he wins, he barely basks. If he loses, he doesn’t take the time to lie low or lick wounds; he invariably refuses to even admit that he lost. Regardless of the outcome—up, down or somewhere in between—when one tussle is done, Trump reflexively starts to scan the horizon in search of a new skirmish.”
“In 2016, Donald Trump blew through the guardrails of American politics. In his bid for reelection, he’s poised to blow them up,” the AP reports.
“This time around, he’s aided by the power of the presidency, with its unmatched megaphone and resources. And his latest provocation — prodding a foreign leader to investigate Democratic rival Joe Biden — suggests he sees little issue using his office for his personal political interests.”
“His actions foreshadow a no-holds-barred 2020 campaign, regardless of who Democrats select as their nominee in the coming months. If the lesson of Trump’s 2016 victory was that deeply personal attacks and factually inaccurate innuendo are a pathway to victory, his 2020 playbook appears to include more of the same.”
President Trump claimed Monday that he deserves a Nobel Prize for “a lot of things” but complained that the committee that hands out the awards does so unfairly, the Washington Post reports.
The DNC announced new qualifications for the Democratic presidential debate in November with campaigns needing donations from at least 165,000 unique donors to qualify and to reach at least 3% in four qualified polls.
An alternate polling option would allow candidates to meet a 5% polling threshold in two early-state polls.
Polls must be released between September 13 and seven days before the November debate to count toward qualification.
New York Times: “At least eight candidates have already met the 165,000-donor threshold… Only three qualifying polls have been released since Sept. 13.”
“A new poll by a firm linked to Joe Biden is testing messages designed to undercut support among Democrats for Medicare for All, one of the most contentious issues splitting the party’s top presidential contenders,” Bloomberg reports.
“The survey, commissioned by the centrist Democratic think tank Third Way, found that primary voters start off favoring the government-run health care system by a margin of 79% to 21%, but can be persuaded to oppose it. The study showed that Democrats are most swayed by the arguments that the program would impose a heavy cost on taxpayers and threaten Medicare for senior citizens.”
Randi Weingarten: The false choice over Medicare for All.
“The FBI has arrested a U.S. soldier who allegedly discussed plans to bomb a major American news network, planned to travel to Ukraine to fight with violent far-right group Azov Battalion and allegedly distributed information online on how to build bombs,” ABC News reports.
“He also allegedly suggested targeting Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke.”
Politico: “It began as nothing more than a device to govern an unruly primary field. But the bar set for Democrats to qualify for this year’s presidential debates has become a force in its own right, more consequential than any of the early debates it administered… And the rules are now metastasizing in unexpected ways.”
“In Iowa, some prominent Democrats are privately urging struggling campaigns to stay in the contest even if they cannot qualify for the debates, incredulous that metrics imposed by national Democratic Party officials could stamp out lesser contenders … Democrats raising money for down-ticket candidates are complaining that the presidential candidates’ imperative to raise money to meet debate thresholds is drawing attention away from congressional and state house contests — and perverting the Democratic Party’s messaging overall.”
The RNC paid over $160,000 to a law firm that is defending former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, CNBC reports.
The payment was made a month before his testimony in front of the House Judiciary Committee.
“A lawsuit brought by protesters who contend they were roughed up by security personnel outside Trump Tower in 2015 has become an urgent problem for President Trump’s legal team after a New York judge ruled Friday that Trump must submit to a videotaped deposition in the case,” Politico reports.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) urged President Trump to release more details of his phone call with the Ukrainian president in which he urged an investigation of Joe Biden’s son, Politico reports.
Said Graham: “I would urge him to continue to be as transparent as possible and tell us as much as he can without compromising executive privilege, so that we can understand what happened.”
He added: “I believe that President Trump is going to blow you away with his willingness to disclose and be transparent about this phone call, because I think he did nothing wrong and he has nothing to hide.”
Politico: “A growing number of freshman Democrats in swing districts are rethinking their stance against impeachment after President Donald Trump’s attempt to pressure Ukrainian officials for his own political gain — a shift that could put real pressure on Speaker Nancy Pelosi to act after months of resistance.”
Said one freshman Democrat: “It’s a seismic change in mood.”
“This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be up here. I should be in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you come to us young people for hope. How dare you. You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words.”
— Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg, speaking to the U.N. General Assembly.
Rudy Giuliani said he can’t be “100% certain” that President Trump did not threaten to withhold foreign aid when Trump reportedly urged Ukraine’s president to investigate the son of Joe Biden, CNBC reports.
“Competing factions inside the White House have stymied efforts to unite behind gun legislation, further delaying President Trump from getting behind any plan,” Politico reports.
“On one side is Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and adviser, and Attorney General William Barr. Both are urging the president to back new firearms restrictions — including expanded background checks for gun sales — insisting he can be the leader who succeeds on an intractable issue that has bedeviled his predecessors and that he can win back moderate suburban voters in the process, according to people involved in the discussions.”
“On the other side, a group that includes Donald Trump Jr., the president’s son and an avid hunter, and a top aide to acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, is telling Trump he risks losing support from his conservative base if he pushes too aggressively on new gun control legislation, they say.”
Asked what he told the Ukrainian president about Joe Biden and son, Hunter, President Trump told ABC News, “You’re going to see.”
He added: ““We’re supporting a country; we want to make sure that country is honest. It’s very important to talk about corruption. If you don’t talk about corruption, why would you give money to a country that you think is corrupt? … So it’s very important that, on occasion, you speak to somebody about corruption.”
Aaron Blake: “Trump makes no mention about the Bidens, but he’s essentially doing what Giuliani did Thursday: He’s laying a preemptive defense for if it comes out that Trump did offer Ukraine something or threatened (explicitly or implicitly) to withhold something — such as $250 million in aid, which Trump did withhold for a time — in exchange for Ukraine investigating the Bidens.”
“Ukraine wants to stay out of a domestic political battle in Washington and any attempt by either side to take advantage of Ukraine would damage relations,” a top official in President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s administration told Reuters.
“Ahead of a meeting with President Donald Trump this week, Zelenskiy is caught in a fight between Republicans and Democrats over allegations that Trump pressured Zelenskiy to investigate Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden.”
OK, this made me laugh: Trump Splat Ball.
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.
