“This was a difficult vote. The paradox is, by shutting the government, we’re actually giving Donald Trump more power. And that was why I voted yes.”
— Sen. Angus King (I-ME), quoted by the New York Times, on siding with Republicans to keep the government open.
Social Security payments to more than 74 million Americans will stay on schedule during the government shutdown, ABC News reports.
“The post of United Nations ambassador isn’t a Cabinet position, as President Trump signals the decreased importance of the U.N. to his administration,” CBS News reports.
“When former Rep. Mike Waltz was confirmed by the U.S. Senate earlier this month, news outlets reported that the vote filled the final vacancy in Mr. Trump’s Cabinet, which buoyed Waltz’s status with protocol-oriented foreign officials. But the decision has been made to not elevate the role to that Cabinet rank.”
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“Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, in a notable break with the Department of Justice, claimed late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein was ‘the greatest blackmailer ever’ — and may have traded the feds video of his rich and well-connected associates getting massages from young women in exchange for a controversial 2008 plea deal,” the New York Post reports.
“The 64-year-old cabinet secretary said that Epstein himself showed off his notorious ‘massage room’ while giving Lutnick and his wife a tour of the infamous East 71st Street townhouse after the couple moved in next door to the since-disgraced financier in 2005.”
Said Lutnick: “I say to him, ‘Massage table in the middle of your house? How often do you have a massage?’ And he says, ‘Every day.’ And then he gets, like weirdly close to me, and he says, ‘And the right kind of massage.’”
Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought told House Republicans on Wednesday, the first day of the government shutdown, that the Trump administration will start firing federal employees in the next “one to two” days, NBC News reports.
Punchbowl News: “We’re told that the Democrats in the group proposed a short-term CR — 10 days or two weeks — that would serve as a forcing mechanism to get some sort of bipartisan deal on Obamacare subsidies.”
“Republicans, however, stood by their leadership’s position, which is that Obamacare negotiations shouldn’t be tied directly to government funding.”
“There are all sorts of ideas bouncing around right now, and none of these matter unless there’s leadership buy-in on both sides of the aisle.”
A new Quinnipiac poll in Pennsylvania finds Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) with a 60% to 28% approval rating.
A hypothetical re-election matchup shows Shapiro ahead crushing Stacy Garrity (R), 55% to 39%.
From the Washington Post editorial board:
“The Democratic Party shut off any potential escape valve to avoid a shutdown, which began at midnight on Tuesday. In doing so, progressives embraced the same disastrous mentality that led the House Freedom Caucus to believe it could come out ahead in previous government funding standoffs: They wrongly assumed their political leverage would withstand the ensuing fallout.”
Inside Elections: “Throughout 2017 and into early 2018, election watchers kept seeing the same movie over and over: Special elections in heavily Republican areas were way closer than they had any right to be, as Donald Trump’s presidency galvanized Democratic voters and put several normally safe Republican districts into play. Eight years later, Trump is back in the White House and once again generating intense backlash: Democrats are overperforming in special elections to an even greater extent than they did in 2017-18. But with only four federal special elections in the books so far this year, unlike during Trump’s first term, we have yet to see a truly competitive race develop.”
“That could change on December 2. That’s the date of the special election in Tennessee’s 7th District, a solidly Republican seat that could nevertheless have just enough Democratic voters to make things interesting.”
“A pornographic blog linked to Virginia lieutenant governor candidate John Reid (R) shared content from accounts that fetishized Nazism and sexual violence,” the American Journal News reports.
“Reid has denied ownership of the blog, which was hosted on Tumblr under the name JRDeux, the same handle he uses on Instagram and TikTok. Other news outlets have reported on the existence of the blog, but not its racist content or disturbing imagery.”
“Unfortunately, we are here this morning in a government shutdown that Democrats wanted. Chuck Schumer, at the behest of a bunch of liberal, far-left activist groups, has walked his Democrat colleagues into a boxed canyon. There is no way out.”
— Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), quoted by Politico.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) said the main reason Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) rallied Democrats to defeat a Republican funding bill and trigger a government shutdown is because he’s afraid of facing a primary challenge from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) in 2028.
Said Mullin: “Here you have a career politician who is more afraid of his reelection … than he is doing what’s right for the American people. This is what happens when you have a career politician.”
He added: “He is afraid of AOC over a clean continuing resolution.”
Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball: “With the benefit of hindsight, we can say that the ‘but he fights’ wing of the GOP ultimately won control of the party, culminating in the Trump era that we are living in now. Democrats, meanwhile, are in a position similar to Republicans a dozen years ago—trying to navigate a situation where at least some segment of their base wants to be able to say ‘but they fight!’ even as their likelihood of winning that fight is debatable at best.”
“As we said above, we doubt this shutdown matters in the context of the 2026 midterm, but the kind of leader Democrats want in the longer-term will be hashed out during the 2028 presidential primary. Republicans made their choice in 2016, opting for a candidate who fit the ‘but he fights’ mold.”
“Whatever kind of candidate Democrats nominate in 2028, perhaps there will have been something instructive about that choice that we remember from this shutdown.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) mocked President Trump’s recent comments about walking up the stairs at the United Nations, calling him a “very weak man,” The Hill reports.
“Capitol Hill staff are preparing to miss paychecks if the shutdown drags on, but their bosses don’t need to worry — pay for lawmakers is mandated in the Constitution and continues regardless of whether Congress funds the government,” Bloomberg reports.
“Already, House members and senators across the political spectrum are engaging in the custom of rejecting their paychecks when the government is closed. But since the Treasury is constitutionally required to pay them a salary, the process is more complicated than simply not paying lawmakers who refuse the money.”
“The Trump administration is planning to withhold billions of dollars from one of the nation’s largest public works projects in direct retaliation for the government shutdown, which Republicans are blaming on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and fellow Democrats,” Politico reports.
“White House budget director Russell Vought said Wednesday the administration is withholding ‘roughly $18 billion’ from New York City infrastructure projects because of ‘unconstitutional DEI principles.'”
New York Times: “The military officers assembled in the room listened silently. It is likely, though, that at least some of them were seething at his suggestion that their collective failure to enforce basic standards had caused, or even contributed to, the military’s failings in Afghanistan and Iraq.”
“The Pentagon plans to impose strict nondisclosure agreements and random polygraph testing for scores of people in its headquarters, including many top officials,” the Washington Post reports.
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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