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Trump a No-Show at Iowa Evangelical Forum

July 14, 2023 at 7:32 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Republican contenders for president will address a gathering of social conservatives in the early nominating state of Iowa on Friday, but the event will be most notable for the 2024 candidate who will not be there: the front-runner, Donald Trump,” Reuters reports.

“Trump’s absence has rankled the organizers of the forum, the Christian advocacy group The Family Leader, who argue that the former president is blowing off an opportunity to court Iowa’s evangelicals, a key Republican voting bloc.”

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Virginia Governor’s Race Looks Tight

January 13, 2025 at 12:02 pm EST

A new Mason-Dixon poll in Virginia finds former Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D) leading Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears (R) in the race for governor, 47% to 44%. Save to Favorites

The Origins of Elected Strongmen

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Just published: The Origins of Elected Strongmen: How Personalist Parties Destroy Democracy from Within by Erica Frantz, Andrea Kendall-Taylor and Joe Wright. Politico: “We’ve studied democratic erosion in countries around…

‘It’s Total Chaos Internally at Meta Right Now’

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“Meta employees are furious with the company’s newly announced content moderation changes that will allow users to say that LGBTQ+ people have ‘mental illness,’” 404 Media reports. “The changes were…

U.S. Image Sinks Among NATO Allies

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Gallup: “In the last year of Biden’s presidency, the median approval of U.S. leadership across NATO’s 30 member countries was 35%, the lowest of his term. Median disapproval was 51%,…

Alberta Premier Warns Trump’s Tariffs Are Coming

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“Canadians should be prepared to face US tariffs once Donald Trump assumes the presidency next week, with no exemptions for oil, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith warned after meeting the president-elect…

Rachel Maddow Returns to Five Nights a Week

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Rachel Maddow, who scaled back anchoring duties after the spring of 2022, holding forth only on Mondays, will return to five nights a week at that hour as part of…

Navigating the Nonsense

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Thomas Zimmer: “I fear that, after so many years of Trumpism shaping American politics and culture, a lot of people have become so inundated with Trump’s bizarre stunts, so accustomed…

Trump Team Question National Security Staff Over Loyalty

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Associated Press: “Incoming senior Trump administration officials have begun questioning career civil servants who work on the White House National Security Council about who they voted for in the 2024…

Trump’s CIA Pick to Push for Bare-Knuckle Spycraft

January 13, 2025 at 10:58 am EST

“President-elect Donald Trump’s unorthodox approach to his coming national-security team is set to come under the spotlight in Congress this week, and one constant remains from his first term: America…

Will We Ever See the Special Counsel Report?

January 13, 2025 at 10:41 am EST

Joyce Vance: “With Donald Trump’s criminal sentencing behind us, the question of the release, or not, of Special’s Counsel Jack Smith’s report seems destined to be one of the key…

FBI Director Warns of Chinese Threat

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“Outgoing FBI Director Christopher Wray defended the bureau as it faces a barrage of attacks from President-elect Donald Trump and his allies,” the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports. “And he offered…

Justices Reject Bid to Let President Fire Agency Heads

January 13, 2025 at 10:33 am EST

“The U.S. Supreme Court turned away a fresh bid to put independent federal agencies under direct presidential control, as the justices steered clear of a fight with implications for the…

Melania Trump Plans to Be at White House Full Time

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“Melania Trump, the former and incoming first lady, said in an interview broadcast on Monday that she planned to live and work full time in the White House during Donald…

House Chairs Prepare for Reconciliation

January 13, 2025 at 10:28 am EST

“It’s good to have a gavel, especially when your party’s in power. With the gavel, though, comes a great responsibility to deliver on promises,” Punchbowl News reports. “That’s what House…

Liberal Preppers Are Gearing Up for Trump

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Olga Khazan: “Like their conservative counterparts, liberal preppers are worried about the stability of the economy and the power grid, but unlike the conservatives, they also worry about climate-change-induced disasters…

Steve Bannon Calls Elon Musk a ‘Truly Evil Person’

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Steve Bannon launched a stinging attack on Elon Musk, calling him a “truly evil person,” the New York Times reports. Said Bannon, to an Italian newspaper: “I will get Elon…

Marjorie Taylor Greene Has the Solution to Wildfires

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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) on X: “Why don’t they use geoengineering like cloud seeding to bring rain down on the wildfires in California? They know how to do it.”…

DOGE Won’t Even Be a Legal Entity

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Quote of the Day

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“China announced on Monday that its trade surplus reached almost $1 trillion last year as its exports swamped the globe, while the country’s own businesses and households spent cautiously on…

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GOP Lawmaker Referred to Blacks as ‘Colored People’ »

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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