Daily Archives
74 posts · Friday
Just dropped · Trial Balloon · Ep. 191
Blue Wave Update
“Donald Trump is once again praising Bill Maher following a dinner he had at the White House with the HBO host along with Stephen A. Smith and Kid Rock,” Deadline reports.
Said Trump: “It was a great dinner, it was a very informative dinner. Smart people. Stephen A. is great. Bill Maher — I will tell you what. He likes me a lot more than people understand, and I actually like him. It was a good dinner.”
“President Donald Trump said he didn’t order limitations on Ukraine’s access to SpaceX’s Starshield satellite technology and didn’t think Elon Musk did so either,” Bloomberg reports.
Said Trump: “It wasn’t me and I don’t think it was Elon. I don’t know if it was anybody.”
“President Donald Trump said Friday there is ‘zero chance’ he’s considering replacing White House chief of staff Susie Wiles after reports that suggested as much,” CNN reports.
Said Trump: “The Susie Wiles story was a fake story She’s been incredible. She’s smart and tough; she just went through a lot with the cancer surgery… Susie is here and she’s gonna be here for a long time.”
Playbook: “With fewer than three weeks to go, the national environment keeps deteriorating for Republicans, and some Democrats are starting to dream of a big blue wave — even as warning signs remain that some GOP backlash may not translate to Democratic conversion.”
“The deluge of campaign spending is now hitting its peak, as candidates scramble to deliver a closing message to late-deciding voters only just tuning in.”
“Records are made to be broken. But I take no pleasure in other people’s pain.”
— Anthony Scaramucci, on X, on Katie Zacharia lasting less than half the 11 days he did in Donald Trump’s White House.
“The new White House press secretary, Katie Zacharia, is out of her role just five days into the job, after President Donald Trump said publicly that she should think about leaving,” the Washington Post reports.
“Her departure marked a rare and speedy retreat from a presidential appointment that acknowledged a rough start to one of the highest-profile roles in the White House.”
New York Times: Katie Zacharia, Trump’s new press secretary, is fired after 5 days.
A new NPA Polling poll in New Hampshire finds Chris Pappas (D) leading John E. Sununu (R) in the U.S. Senate race, 50% to 43%.
A new City Forward Collective and CFC Action Fund/YouGov poll in Wisconsin finds David Crowley (D) leading Tom Tiffany (R) in the governor’s race, 46% to 42%.
“President Trump said Friday he has given his new White House press secretary Katie Zacharia the option to leave her job after a rocky first week, including scrutiny on her résumé,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Said Trump: “I said, ‘Katie, you know, you don’t have to do this if you don’t want.’”
Bloomberg: Trump opens door to replacing press secretary after rocky start.
“A billboard in Brownsville, Texas, featuring Republican congressional candidate Eric Flores so closely resembles his campaign ads it could be one of his campaign posters,” the Washington Sun reports.
“Except unlike his campaign posters, it prominently features an endorsement by and photo of Flores with President Donald Trump, which Democrats are now accusing Flores of trying to bury. The billboard also touts his ‘support’ of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.”
“In an Oct. 12 cease-and-desist letter obtained by The Washington Sun, attorney Eric Wang, who represents the Flores campaign, demanded that Lamar Advertising of the Rio Grande Valley, the billboard company that put it up, immediately remove the digital billboard.”
“A judge threatened to sanction President Donald Trump for failing to sit for a mandatory deposition in the $10 billion defamation suit he filed against the British Broadcasting Corp,” Bloomberg reports.
“The White House has again barred CNN from its traveling television pool Friday, preventing the network from accompanying President Donald Trump aboard Air Force One amid a legal battle over press access,” the Washington Sun reports.
A new Talk Business and Politics/Hendrix College poll in Arkansas finds Tom Cotton (R) leading Hallie Shoffner (D) in the U.S. Senate race, 50% to 41%, with Jeff Wadlin (L) at 5%.
“A billion-dollar war chest was meant to be Republicans’ great equalizer heading into a bleak midterm election environment defined by economic frustration, President Donald Trump’s unpopularity and fallout from the war in Iran,” CNBC reports.
“So far it hasn’t worked.”
“From Labor Day through Oct 14. GOP groups injected more than $740 million into congressional races that will determine control of Congress…”
“Yet with less than three weeks until the Nov. 3 Election Day, the spending blitz has barely moved the map. Democrats lead in FiftyPlusOne’s polling averages across nine of the Senate’s most competitive races – Alaska, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas – little changed from before the Republican spending spree.”
“One of the most vulnerable Republicans in the House is running on immigration — and taking on both parties over it,” Politico reports.
“Rep. Mike Lawler is hammering Democrats over ‘sanctuary’ policies while criticizing the Trump administration’s aggressive — and at times lethal — immigration enforcement tactics.”
“Lawler is betting his self-described ‘common sense’ approach can win him a third term in a suburban Hudson Valley district Kamala Harris carried in 2024. His race against Democrat Cait Conley, an Army veteran and first-time candidate, could help determine control of the House.”
Michael Strain: “Inflation is running hot. American workers and households are falling behind, and are deeply dissatisfied with Donald Trump’s handling of the economy. The response of the president and many Republican leaders is to insist that the economy is great and the American people just don’t understand how great it is.”
“Joe Biden tried arguing with the American people about their experience of the economy, and it didn’t work. It’s not working for Trump either. Future governments should learn what at this point should be an obvious lesson: the American people really hate inflation.”
“Elon Musk is putting a small fortune into Republicans’ effort to salvage the Senate seat in Texas, seen as critical to the party keeping control of the chamber in the fall elections,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“According to federal filings, Musk donated $158 million to Senate Republicans’ super PAC in September—the same amount that was immediately funneled to a group backing Republican Ken Paxton’s Senate bid.”
“Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday asked European Union leaders to provide Kyiv an extra $79 billion in funding next year to help it keep fighting Russia,” Agence France-Presse reports.
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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