Daily Archives

January 22, 2018

27 posts · Monday

Expect More Government Shutdowns

January 22, 2018 at 8:59 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Stan Collender: “The biggest and most depressing lesson coming from Washington these days is that government shutdowns are a politically acceptable tactic for Congress and the White House.”

“As a result, what was once very rare must be considered the new normal in Washington. Regardless of which political party is in the majority in the House and Senate and who is president, government shutdowns are now very likely to be threatened and occur almost every year.”

“Government shutdowns used to be black swans, but now they are more like the common pigeons you see everywhere all the time.”

North Korea Months Away from Being Able to Attack U.S.

January 22, 2018 at 8:26 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

CIA director Mike Pompeo told CBS News that North Korea is only “a handful of months” away from delivering an attack on the United States.

Said Pompeo: “We’ll never know the exact nature of what’s taking place…. The core risk is that North Korea’s nuclear weapons program is continuing to expand, advance, become more powerful, more capable, more reliable.”

Trump Is Holding Up a Deal to End Shutdown

January 22, 2018 at 8:05 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

This piece is only available to Political Wire members.

It’s still not clear how the government shutdown ends.

Join now to continue reading.

Members get exclusive analysis, bonus features and no advertising. Learn more.

If you’re already a member, sign in to your account.

Quote of the Day

January 22, 2018 at 7:45 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“You love your dad. I get that. But you’re just another staffer who doesn’t know what you’re doing.”

— Stephen Bannon to Ivanka Trump, quoted in Howard Kurtz’s Media Madness.

Trust In U.S. Plummets

January 22, 2018 at 7:34 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

The Edelman Trust Barometer found trust in U.S. institutions crashed last year, “posting the steepest, most dramatic general population decline the Trust Barometer has ever measured.”

“Among the informed public, the trust crash is even steeper, with trust declining 23 points, dropping the U.S. from sixth to last place out of the 28 countries surveyed. The informed public trust crash is universal across age, region and gender. As a result, the gap in trust between the informed public and the mass population has been all but eliminated.”

Mike Allen interviewed CEO Richard Edelman: “It’s the first time we’ve seen such a trust drop delinked from either a major event, or economic chaos.”

Negotiating with a President Not Sure of What He Wants

January 22, 2018 at 7:19 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

New York Times: “Both sides have reason to be confused. Each time Mr. Trump has edged toward compromise with Democrats, he has appeared to be reined in by his own staff, which shares the hawkish immigration stance that fueled his campaign. And Republican leaders, bruised by past experience with a president who has rarely offered them consistent cover on a politically challenging issue, are loath to guess at his intentions.”

“The result has been a paralysis not only at the White House but on Capitol Hill, complicating the chances for an ultimate resolution of how to protect hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants, the problem underlying the shutdown. And it has raised questions not only about Mr. Trump’s grasp of the issue that animated his campaign and energizes his core supporters, but his leadership.”

Another Book Describes Chaos in the White House

January 22, 2018 at 7:12 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Washington Post: “The White House — and the politerati diaspora — has just barely stopped reeling from author Michael Wolff’s account of life in Trump’s West Wing, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, and now another life-in-the-White-House book is about to drop, this one from Kurtz.”

“Like the books that came before it, and almost certainly like the ones still to come, Kurtz’s book, Media Madness: Donald Trump, The Press, And The War Over The Truth, offers a portrait of a White House riven by chaos, with aides scrambling to respond to the president’s impulses and writing policy to fit his tweets.”

Democrats Hold Wide Lead in Congressional Ballot

January 22, 2018 at 7:08 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

A new Washington Post-ABC News poll more voters prefer a Democratic candidate for Congress than a Republican one, 51% to 39%.

“The poll finds Democrats holding a 57% to 31% advantage among female voters, double the size of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s margin in the 2016 election. Nonwhite women favor Democrats by a 53-point margin, somewhat smaller than Clinton’s 63-point advantage over Trump in 2016. But white women have moved sharply in Democrats’ direction, favoring them over Republicans by 12 points after supporting Trump by nine points in 2016 and Republican candidates by 14 points in the 2014 midterm election, according to network exit polls.”

More Voters Blame Republicans for Shutdown

January 22, 2018 at 7:02 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

A new Politico/Morning Consult poll finds more voters blame Republicans in Congress for the government shutdown than Democrats, 41% to 36%.

“Yet the shutdown is no clean political win for Democrats. Americans don’t necessarily approve of the party’s strategy to insist on a legislative solution for undocumented immigrants brought here as children before voting to reopen the government. In fact, both parties’ immigration stances — Democrats’ efforts to protect the so-called Dreamers and Trump’s insistence on funding a border wall with Mexico — are viewed by voters as less important than keeping the government open.”