“Andrew Cuomo will not drop out of the New York City mayoral race by the Friday deadline to remove himself from the general election ballot,” CNN reports.
“That leaves in place contingency plans he had established before the Democratic primary to challenge Zohran Mamdani and incumbent Mayor Eric Adams in November.”
A pro-Trump super PAC is out with its first TV ad against Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), the Kentucky Republican targeted for defeat by the president, Axios reports.
Punchbowl News: “Senate Republican leaders projected confidence during a closed-door meeting Thursday that they can fix their Medicaid provider tax language after the Senate parliamentarian said it didn’t comply with reconciliation rules, according to multiple attendees.”
“The bigger problem, GOP leaders told senators, is that they don’t yet have 50 votes to begin the floor process on their massive tax and spending cut bill.”
“It was an acknowledgment from Senate Republican leadership that fixing the procedural problem won’t fix the political problem with the provider tax crackdown, which several GOP senators believe would cause rural hospitals to shut down. It’s also worth noting that despite the Senate Republican leadership’s confidence in resolving the procedural issue, it could still take a lot of time.”
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Some Republicans are calling on President Trump’s administration to revoke Zohran Mamdani’s citizenship and deport him from the country, The Independent reports.
The New York Young Republican Club issued a “call to action” and urged the president to invoke the Red Scare-era Communist Control Act to yank Mamdani’s citizenship and “promptly deport him.”
“Carolyn McCarthy, whose personal tragedy propelled her to national prominence after her husband was killed during the 1993 Long Island Rail Road massacre, launching a nearly two-decade congressional career during which she became one of the nation’s leading voices for gun control, died Wednesday of natural causes,” Newsday reports.
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) is preparing to officially launch her campaign for New York governor, The Hill reports.
A new Quinnipiac poll finds 64% of voters prefer giving most undocumented immigrants in the United States a pathway to legal status, while 31% say they prefer deporting most undocumented immigrants in the United States.
This is a change from roughly six months ago when 55% of voters said they preferred giving most undocumented immigrants a pathway to legal status and 36% said they preferred deporting them.
Also interesting: Voters by 56% to 39% disapprove of the way U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is doing its job.
“The Senate’s top rules arbiter has some Republicans fuming, casting a harsh spotlight on the obscure but powerful official,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“On Thursday, some Republicans called for the firing of Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough after she effectively blocked a number of GOP proposals central to their fast-track budget legislation, hampering party leaders’ ability to quickly pass President Trump’s sprawling domestic-policy bill.”
“Federal judges are retiring at a historically slow pace at the onset of President Donald Trump’s second term, most strikingly among those appointed by his Republican predecessors,” Bloomberg Law reports.
“Few of the roughly 70 Republican-appointed judges eligible to take a form of partial retirement or completely step down from the bench as of June 1 have done so, denying Trump the chance to pick their replacement.”
“The lack of new vacancies is thwarting Trump’s plans to continue replacing an older and more moderate generation of Republican-appointees with younger and even more conservative jurists.”
“The White House is forging ahead with its demand that Congress pass its sweeping megabill by July 4, insisting that the legislative effort remain on track despite mounting doubts about its viability on Capitol Hill,” Politico reports.
“Former Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy warned Thursday that acrimonious political discourse and threats to judges are eroding the ability of the United States to serve as an example of democracy worldwide,” Politico reports.
Said Kennedy: “Many in the rest of the world look to the United States to see what democracy is, to see what democracy ought to be. If they see a hostile, fractious discourse, if they see a discourse that uses identity politics rather than to talk about issues, democracy is at risk. Freedom is at risk.”
“In a conference room in Manhattan on Wednesday night, Mayor Eric Adams and Daniel Loeb, the hedge fund manager, met with other business leaders and political brokers to discuss how to stop the rise of Zohran Mamdani and possibly bolster Mr. Adams’s re-election campaign,” the New York Times reports.
“The business leaders were impressed that Mr. Adams was already staging a public fight against Mr. Mamdani.”
“The Supreme Court will hand down its final decisions of the term on Friday, including an expected high-profile ruling on whether President Donald Trump may enforce his divisive executive order curtailing birthright citizenship,” CNN reports.
“As is tradition, Chief Justice John Roberts announced the final day from the bench.”
“The schedule sets up a blockbuster last day at the Supreme Court in which the justices will hand down six opinions in some of the biggest cases of the year, including those dealing with Trump’s birthright citizenship order, a challenge from religious parents who want to opt their children out of reading LGBTQ books in school and a First Amendment suit over a Texas law that requires people to verify their age before accessing porn online.”
Associated Press: Supreme Court’s final opinions of the term are coming Friday.
Punchbowl News: “Senate Republicans’ reconciliation plans took a huge hit this morning when the parliamentarian knocked out a crucial Medicaid cut.”
“The ruling by Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough threw the GOP timetable into flux and created yet another problem for Republican leaders as they rush to get the reconciliation bill done by next Friday.”
“Senate GOP leaders are insistent that the bill containing President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda can still hit the floor in short order. But Senate Majority Leader John Thune acknowledged the timeline will slip “a little bit,” and many GOP senators and aides believe the timing will shift to later in the weekend.”
“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to meet with President Trump at the White House in the coming weeks to celebrate the joint U.S-Israeli bombing of Iran’s nuclear program,” Axios reports.
Zohran Mamdani told ABC News in a wide-ranging interview “that he plans to win over moderate voters — even as a self-identified Democratic socialist — as he runs in the general election.”
Said Mamdani: “I think that the Democratic Party must always remember what made so many proud to be Democrats, which is a focus on the struggles of working class Americans across this country. And I think that there is a need for a new generation of leadership.”
Paul Krugman: “I was enormously cheered by Mamdani’s victory, not because I think he’ll be a great mayor — honestly I have no idea — but because a Cuomo victory would have been deeply depressing. Why? Because it would have been an affirmation of elite impunity and lack of accountability. Cuomo is by all accounts a terrible person, and his bungled response to Covid killed people. For him to make a comeback simply because he’s part of the old boys’ club and had the big money behind him would have said that the rules only apply to the little people.”
“There’s a huge argument among Democrats about whether they need to run more centrist candidates. I am not ready to weigh in on that debate. But if you’re going to take that side, find better centrists. I mean, are Cuomo and Eric Adams the best you can do?”
Jonathan Last: “All of that said, Mamdani has a lot of upside potential… He ran a baller campaign. The guy went from 2 percent to utter dominance over the Democratic establishment. He weathered millions of dollars in spending against him. He did it with a campaign that was positive and future-focused.”
“Dems want a candidate who can meet people where they are? Mamdani did it. Want a candidate who can do longform podcasts? Ditto. Who masters new media and transitions away from the old paradigms? Yup. A candidate who generates authentic excitement and creates something that looks less like a campaign and more like a movement?”
“That’s what Mamdani did.”
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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