Former FBI director James Comey pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Wednesday morning in federal court in Alexandria, VA, the New York Times reports.
Comey’s lawyer entered the plea on behalf of his client and requested a trial by jury. The judge set a trial date of January 5.
Tennessee state Rep. Justin Pearson (D), who rose to national prominence in 2023 when he was expelled from his legislative seat as one of the “Tennessee Three,” is launching a primary challenge against Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN), Axios reports.
Pearson, 30, is the latest young Democrat looking to unseat an older incumbent Democrat as a debate over generational change roils the party. Cohen is 76.
“Democratic voting rights groups are preparing for a nightmare scenario if the Supreme Court guts a key part of the landmark civil rights-era legislation, the Voting Rights Act — a very real possibility this term,” Politico reports.
“Ahead of the court’s Oct. 15 rehearing of Louisiana v. Callais — a case that has major implications for the VRA — two voting rights groups are sounding the alarm, warning that eliminating Section 2, a provision that prohibits racial gerrymandering when it dilutes minority voting power, would let Republicans redraw up to 19 House seats to favor the party and crush minority representation in Congress.”
David Gans: “In the two decades John Roberts has served as chief justice, the Supreme Court he presides over has repeatedly decimated the Voting Rights Act, striking a series of savage blows to the law long hailed as the crown jewel of the Civil Rights Movement. This term, in Louisiana v. Callais, the Voting Rights Act is in the crosshairs once again, as the court’s conservative supermajority might strike down the act’s last standing pillar.”
“President Trump escalated his battle with Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, saying the Democratic leaders should be imprisoned for failing to protect ICE officers,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Three people familiar with the Biden pardon process told NOTUS that former FBI Director James Comey “was never seriously considered for a pardon.”
“But two of those sources said that Comey did initially come up briefly in discussions by a tight group of high-ranking Biden aides after it was floated by an outside advocacy group.”
Greg Sargent: “Stephen Miller has a theory about this political moment. As President Trump expands his lawbreaking and dictatorial rule, the powerful MAGA disinformation apparatus—at Miller’s direction—is supercharging public attention to the debate over Trump’s conduct in a way that’s designed to deeply polarize it.”
“That will force Americans to take a side in that standoff, Miller clearly believes, driving them to embrace authoritarian rule, though perhaps without understanding it in exactly those terms.”
“Do Democratic leaders broadly have their own theory about this moment? It’s unclear. But here’s what we can divine right now: Governors J.B. Pritzker of Illinois and Gavin Newsom of California do have one.”
“Sen. Jon Ossoff raised another $12 million over the last three months, bringing his campaign account to $21 million as he gears up for one of the nation’s most competitive midterm races,” the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.
“Book publisher HarperCollins UK apologized to First Lady Melania Trump on Tuesday and recalled a book that repeated unverified claims that child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein was involved in introducing her to Donald Trump,” Axios reports.
“HarperCollins is the third media enterprise to apologize to Melania Trump and remove content related to the Epstein allegation.“
Semafor: “Despite pressure from Trump and the GOP, Jeffries has kept his members together so far, and many of them say he’s doing well in his first big test ahead of a midterm election they hope will make him speaker.”
“That doesn’t mean the president is prepared to take him seriously.”
“If Trump is at all concerned about the prospect that the onetime manager of his impeachment could try again in 2027, he’s not showing it. After Jeffries’ first face-to-face meeting with Trump last week, the president started amplifying cartoonish AI-generated videos of the New York Democrat wearing a sombrero — while not saying his name in public, no matter how much the lawmaker prods him.”
As the government shutdown enters its second week, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA_) is taking her party’s fight for enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies to the neighboring red state of Idaho, Semafor reports.
Said Murray: “If the Republican lawmakers… are not going to level with their constituents about what is at stake in this fight, I will.”
California Governor hopeful Katie Porter (D) had an absolute train wreck of an interview with CBS News Sacramento.
President Trump spoke to reporters: “They’re all Democrats delays. There are delays at the airport. That’s standard.”
He added: “I look at people with very low IQs like Crockett, this woman Crockett. I’ve never met her but she’s a low IQ individual.”
“Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene isn’t backing down from her very public break with fellow Republicans on health care that shook up Washington,” NBC News reports.
Said Greene: “What I am upset over is my party has no solution. It’s not something that we talk about frequently, but it is a reality for Americans, and it’s something that I don’t think we can ignore. I want, I really want to fix it.”
New York Times: Health care politics bolster Democrats in shutdown fight.
“Democrats are largely standing by their nominee for Virginia attorney general after revelations that he once mused about killing a GOP lawmaker — worrying some in the party who want to draw a hard line against political violence and drawing accusations of hypocrisy from Republicans,” the Washington Post reports.
“Top Democrats have condemned the 2022 texts from Jay Jones but declined to join Republicans in calling for Jones to drop out, with early voting already underway in the battleground state. Republicans have quickly made the texts part of their closing pitch to voters, highlighting them in ads and attacking other Democrats for their muted responses.”
“Gold — typically a safe-haven in times of turmoil — is soaring at the same time the stock market is hitting new highs, an unusual dynamic that is troubling some market insiders,” Axios reports.
“The rally in gold reflects investors’ desire to diversify away from dollar-denominated assets as trust in the U.S. slowly erodes, they say.”
“Gold futures on Tuesday topped a record high of over $4,000 an ounce for the first time, putting the precious metal on track for its best year since 1979 — a year of double-digit inflation, a Mideast oil crisis and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. So far this year, the price of gold is up 51%.”
Wall Street Journal: Gold rally points to eroding faith in central banks worldwide.
“American soybean farmers are in panic mode as they harvest what is expected to be a bumper crop without their biggest customer: China,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“A host of alternative jobs data from Wall Street are pointing in the same direction: The U.S. labor market is losing steam,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“These numbers are getting more attention while the federal government shutdown keeps the lights off at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, delaying new data in an unsettled time for the jobs market.”
“In the federal data void, Bank of America this week said it is seeing signs of rising unemployment and slowing job growth in its customers’ data. Private-equity company Carlyle Group, extrapolating from companies in which it owns stakes, said Tuesday that it thinks overall U.S. jobs growth slid in September from an already weak official reading in August. Goldman Sachs said its measure of labor-market tightness fell last month back to levels seen in 2015, indicating a tough landscape for job seekers.”
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.
