“Trump health officials plan to link coronavirus vaccines to the deaths of 25 children as they consider limiting which Americans should get the shots,” the Washington Post reports.
“The findings appear to be based on information submitted to the federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, which contains unverified reports of side effects or bad experiences with vaccines submitted by anyone.”
A new Fox News poll finds that more voters say President Trump has made the economy worse rather than better, 52% to 30%.
Those sentiments are almost identical to how they felt about Joe Biden – and are the reverse of how voters felt eight years ago during Trump’s first term.
“National Republicans are wading into the race for New Jersey governor — the latest indication that the party is bullish about Jack Ciattarelli’s chances of flipping the state in November,” Politico reports.
“Restore New Jersey, a super PAC backed by the Republican Governors Association, is placing an initial $1 million advertising buy over the next week to boost Ciattarelli in the final stretch of his campaign against Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill, who is benefiting from $20 million in spending from her own super PAC.”
“President Donald Trump dismissed congressional Democrats’ demands ahead of a looming shutdown deadline in a Fox News interview Friday, casting doubt on whether a deal to keep the government open is even possible,” Politico reports.
Said Trump: “There is something wrong with them. If you gave them every dream right now… they want to give away money to this or that and destroy the country. If you gave them every dream, they would not vote for it.”
He added: “Don’t even bother dealing with them. We will get it through because the Republicans are sticking together for the first time in a long time.”
“There is an ideology that has steadily been growing in this country which hates everything that is good, righteous and beautiful and celebrates everything that is warped, twisted and depraved. It is an ideology at war with family and nature. It is envious, malicious, and soulless.”
— White House adviser Stephen Miller, on X.
“Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday said the United States would respond, without specifying how, after former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was convicted of plotting a coup to remain in power after losing the 2022 election,” Reuters reports.
Said Rubio: “The United States will respond accordingly to this witch hunt.”
Philip Bump: “It has been observed that individual Americans are putting up more fight than many institutions. Those individuals are also smaller targets for the authoritarian president and his allies. They are less powerful.”
“But that’s obviously why it’s more important for the institutions to engage and not to succumb to the climate of fear. That climate, after all, only exists if it goes unchallenged. There is no climate of fear without capitulation.”
“President Trump on Friday said that he would send National Guard troops to Memphis, making it the latest Democratic-led city that his administration has targeted as part of a federal crackdown on crime,” the New York Times reports.
“We got him.”
— Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R), at a press conference, announcing the capture of a suspect in the killing of Charlie Kirk.
President Trump was interviewed on Fox & Friends by Ainsley Earhardt:
EARHARDT: We have radicals on the right as well. How do we fix this country?
TRUMP: I’ll tell you something that’s gonna get me in trouble but I couldn’t care less. The radicals on the right oftentimes are radical because they don’t want to see crime. The radicals on the left are the problem.
President Trump told Fox & Friends the suspected shooter in the killing of Charlie Kirk is in custody.
Said Trump: “With a high degree of certainty, we have him in custody.”
He added: “I hope he gets the death penalty.”
NBC News: “A family member saw the photos of the suspect and turned him into police, two senior law enforcement officials say.”
New York Times: “Federal authorities are not releasing his name because they are still in the process of pursuing leads and executing search warrants.”
“The British royals will display their unrivalled soft power when Donald Trump visits Britain next week, seeking to mollify the U.S. President as few others can,” Reuters reports.
“Once head of the largest empire in history, the British monarch’s main diplomatic job now is to schmooze and dazzle world leaders like Trump at grand state occasions in the hope that they will look upon Britain favourably.”
President Trump’s appearance at a Yankees game yesterday and the U.S. Open last weekend is part of his effort to become a cultural figure rather than just a political figure, which he knows “will expand his legacy,” the Washington Post reports.
Former President Joe Biden is having trouble collecting donations for a potential presidential library, NBC News reports.
Democratic donors “cited a range of factors, from not wanting to make themselves a target of the White House to holding their financial firepower for the party’s future. Some cited personal interactions with Biden’s inner circle as being so distasteful they believed it would be a barrier to ever raising significant funds for the 46th president of the United States.”
“Gold has eclipsed its inflation-adjusted peak set more than 45 years ago, as growing anxiety about the U.S.’s economic trajectory takes bullion’s blistering three-year bull run deeper into uncharted territory,” Bloomberg reports.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune told Punchbowl News that he believes Democrats have made the decision to force a government shutdown, a stunning analysis with less than 20 days until the spending deadline.
Said Thune: “think they see it as politically advantageous to have a shutdown.”
He added: “I think their base is clamoring for that. They want a fight with the Trump administration. But they don’t have a good reason to do it. And I don’t intend to give them a good reason to do it.”
Associated Press: Schumer warns of a shutdown if Republicans don’t accept Democrats’ health care demands.
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.