President Trump was asked by reporters about his administration’s push to decriminalize homosexuality around the world:
Q: Mr. President, on your push to decriminalize homosexuality, are you doing that? And why?
TRUMP: Say it?
Q: Your push to decriminalize homosexuality around the world.
TRUMP: I don’t know which report you’re talking about. We have many reports. Anybody else?
Reuters: “Kim will likely travel to Vietnam by train. It could take at least two and a half days to travel the thousands of kilometers through China… That means he would have to set off later this week in time for his planned Feb. 25 arrival.”
A new PRRI poll finds that 45% of Democrats would be unhappy if their child married a Republican.
In contrast, 35% of Republicans would be unhappy if their child married a Democrat.
Four decades removed from his time as a student at Auburn University, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) told the Tennessean he now regrets participating in “Old South” parties with his fraternity.
Said Lee: “I never intentionally acted in an insensitive way, but with the benefit of hindsight, I can see that participating in that was insensitive and I’ve come to regret it.”
Daily Beast: “Upon orientation, the interns signed their very own non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), with the envoy of the counsel’s office warning them that a breach of the NDA—blabbing to the media, for instance—could result in legal, and thus financial, consequences for them. Interns were also told that they would not receive their own copies, these sources said.”
“This was all a standard facet of the Trump intern orientation process, billed as an ‘ethics training’—underscored by implicit legal threats from President Trump’s in-house lawyers.”
“To veterans of other administrations, the act of compelling interns to sign these types of NDAs would seem odd, if not downright unenforceable or legally dubious. To this White House, it’s standard operating procedure.”
“President Obama’s political organization is merging with Eric Holder’s National Redistricting Action Fund, giving it control of the vaunted list of supporters, donors and volunteers that Obama and his team built over more than a decade,” The Hill reports.
“The efforts ahead of the decennial reapportionment and redistricting process that begins next year, and that will have a major effect on the apportionment of electoral college votes and congressional districts.”
“Senate investigators want to question a Moscow-based American businessman with longstanding ties to President Donald Trump after witnesses told them he could shed light on the President’s commercial and personal activities in Russia dating back to the 1990s,” multiple sources have told CNN.
“The Senate Intelligence Committee, which is probing allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 elections, has been keen to speak with David Geovanis for several months.”
First Read: “With Bernie Sanders in the 2020 race, Biden’s decision to run or to pass could be the last big question remaining when it comes to the composition of the Dem field — outside of Beto O’Rourke (who looks more and more like he’s running).”
“If Biden’s in, it potentially changes the math in places like South Carolina and the South (given his standing with African-American voters), and it narrows that pragmatic lane that Amy Klobuchar has been hugging lately.”
“But if Biden’s out, it opens up both South Carolina and the South, as well as that pragmatic lane.”
“Federal Judge Amy Berman Jackson is set to decide Thursday whether to stiffen — or revoke — the release bond of Republican trickster Roger Stone for posting an Instagram photo of the judge next to an apparent rifle scope’s crosshair,” CNBC reports.
“The abruptly scheduled hearing in Washington federal court, set for 2:30 p.m. ET, doesn’t bode well for Stone, a longtime friend and advisor of President Trump.”
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told NBC News he would not run for U.S. Senate from Kansas.
Said Pompeo: “It’s ruled out. I’m here. I’m loving it… I’m going to be the Secretary of State as long as President Trump gives me the opportunity to serve as America’s senior diplomat.”
Molly Ball: “The field is likely to be the largest in either party’s history, there’s no front runner in sight, and the stakes could hardly be higher. It’s not just that many Democrats argue Donald Trump is a threat to American democracy. The party’s very identity is up for grabs, as a vast and historically diverse crop of candidates brings big new ideas to a demanding, divided base.”
“As much as they would like to move away from white male dominance, some rank-and-file Democrats worry that doing so would hurt the party’s chances against Trump. They fear that a woman or nonwhite candidate would be damaged by Trump’s sexism and race-baiting. And to the party faithful, winning is everything.”
“More than anything—more than policy or charisma or age or race or gender—Democratic voters say they care about whether a candidate can beat Donald Trump.”
Marcy Wheeler: “I’m fairly certain the concerns about Barr coming in and forcing Mueller to finish this are misplaced. I say that, in part, because Mueller seemed to be preparing for this timing. I say it, too, because Barr is too close to Mueller to do that to him.”
“That says that Mueller is choosing this timing (and choosing not to wait for the appeals to be done). Whatever reason dictates this timing, by doing it in this window, Mueller can ensure the legitimacy of what happens, both legally (because Barr will be in place) and politically (because it will be clear Rosenstein presided over it).”
“So whatever comes next week, people on both sides should accept that it is the outcome of the investigation that Mueller deemed appropriate.”
Garrett Graff: “The media and bloggers have regularly tracked the abnormally large number of sealed indictments filed over the last year in DC federal court, the jurisdiction where Mueller has been worked, including 14 added between August and November—a period where Mueller was theoretically ‘quiet’ around the midterm election—and four recent sealed indictment that seemed to parallel the Stone indictment.”
“Whether any relatee to Mueller remains to be seen, but in some ways the idea of piling up sealed indictments would have been the smartest way for Mueller to ensure that if he was fired, his case lived on.”
“Sen. Cory Booker’s campaign will announce a slew of endorsements Thursday from New Jersey Democrats in a show of home state support so far unmatched by rival Democratic candidates for president,” CNN reports.
“Every Democrat in New Jersey’s congressional delegation is throwing their support behind the state’s junior senator — including 11 House members, among them House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, and Sen. Bob Menendez, who previously announced he would back Booker.”
“Two of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s strongest challengers in April elections have announced a centrist alliance in a bid to defeat him,” the BBC reports.
“Ex-army chief Benny Gantz and centrist politician Yair Lapid agreed to rotate as prime minister if they win.”
“Separately, Mr Netanyahu forged an alliance with several far-right parties to try to shore up votes. His right-wing Likud party leads the polls despite an investigation into corruption allegations against him.”
Axios: “The joint list does not have a common political platform — and, on many issues, there are big differences between the factions. However, the main issue they all agree on is the need to replace Netanyahu.”
“Republicans toiling to re-elect President Trump are freshly optimistic, confident a Democratic Party dominated by ambitious progressives is scaring wayward factions of the conservative coalition back into the fold,” the Washington Examiner reports.
“With a midterm election rebuke and disastrous government shutdown in the rear view, Trump’s 2020 campaign team and constellation of key outside supporters are sensing a turnaround. The president hasn’t changed his controversial ways. But Trump’s top lieutenants believe that newly empowered liberal Democrats — in Washington and across the country — plus the sometimes peculiar spectacle of the Democratic primary, are causing uneasy Republicans to reconsider their opposition.”
“Miami fears the fix is in. Local Democrats increasingly believe that the Democratic National Convention in 2020 will be sited in Milwaukee, a conclusion that’s led Florida politicians, donors and insiders to mount a final lobbying blitz to turn the tide,” Politico reports.
“The last-ditch effort began in earnest in recent days as speculation mounted that Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez would pick Milwaukee, where he has both family ties and the pressure of the Democratic governors of Wisconsin and Illinois weighing on him to go with a Midwestern location.”
Playbook: “Democrats involved in the bids believe an announcement could come as soon as next week.”
NBC News: “Joe Biden wants to be president. And each day, he’s closer to being ready to run for the office. But even as he weighs a campaign to unseat President Donald Trump, Biden is carefully considering a key question — what happens when the president or his top allies try to make his family an issue?”
“Conversations with aides to the former vice president and others who’ve spoken with him in recent weeks present the idea of a Biden candidacy as not if but when. Since the start of the year it’s been like a “slow boil,” as one aide put it, with Biden’s answer on whether to run moving in a steady direction toward yes, incrementally warmer with each passing day.”
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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