Andrew Sullivan: “The president openly demands his attorney general file charges against named political enemies despite no solid evidence they have committed any crimes.”
“One of his senior officials, Tom Homan, is on an FBI tape receiving $50,000 in cash in bribes, and he remains in office with the full backing of the president. Megyn Kelly says of this bribe: ‘WE DO NOT CARE.'”
“This is a criminal enterprise, not an administration.”
For members: Punishing Foes, Protecting Friends
Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Bill Berrien (R) is campaigning as a conservative leader who stands up for family values and is especially critical of transgender individuals, saying they are engaged in “radical social experimentation,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
“But Berrien’s online footprint tells a different story — one that he quietly tried to erase in recent days.”
“On Medium.com — an older online platform, similar to Substack — Berrien, 56, has an account that was following a transgender porn star named Jiz Lee and several other authors of sexually explicit essays.”
“Other writers he was following include Octavio Morrison, author of ‘7 Types of Orgasmic Sensations’ and ‘3 Terrible Reasons to Have a Threesome’ and Emma Austin, who calls herself ‘a wholesome perv with a touch of whimsy’ who has posted items such as ‘Pegging is A-OK,’ and ‘I Love Getting Jackhammered.'”
“Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has broken ranks with the Trump administration on free speech, urging Americans to protect it at all cost in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination,” the Daily Beast reports.
“Days after Republican Senator Ted Cruz and conservative commentator Ben Shapiro spoke out against the administration’s role in pulling Jimmy Kimmel off the air last week, Gabbard became the latest MAGA figure to champion the importance of free speech at a time when dissent is increasingly being silenced.”
“Green groups stunned by the Trump administration’s rapid-fire dismantling of their environmental victories are still debating how to fight back — and torn between two contrasting strategies,” Politico reports.
“One set of activists is urging the environmental movement to join a broader anti-billionaire campaign led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), which accuses the Trump administration of attacking democracy to benefit the very wealthiest Americans.”
“Others want to double down on the Biden administration’s portrayal of climate action as a pocketbook issue — contending that Republican attacks on investments in electric vehicles, wind farms and other clean energy technologies will wipe out jobs and burden consumers with higher costs.”
Marc Novicoff: “Party leaders know they need to moderate on cultural issues to win back working-class voters—so why don’t they?”
Time: “In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination earlier this month, President Donald Trump and members of his administration have openly discussed punishing left-leaning organizations they believe fuel political violence. Experts say one tactic that’s been mentioned could be especially harmful to some of the targeted groups: going after their tax-exempt status.”
Time: “But while many Americans are celebrating the deal as a victory for user privacy rights and national security, some cybersecurity experts still have concerns. They contend that TikTok’s new structure, based on the scant details that have emerged about the deal, could open up users to surveillance and influence not from China—but the American government itself.”
“Some cybersecurity experts worry that China will retain too much power under the new arrangement. Others, however, worry that the U.S. government will have the power to control this new licensed algorithm and view user data—raising its own set of concerns, since Trump himself could theoretically influence what content the platform elevates or buries.”
“Why did Kamala Harris lose the presidency? In 107 Days, her memoir of the election she inherited from Joe Biden, the answer is a series of mistakes, committed over years, mostly by other people,” Semafor reports.
“It was a mistake for Biden to disinvite Elon Musk from a White House electric vehicle summit and make him an enemy; she ‘shared this view’ with Biden staff. It was a mistake for Biden to run again, a view she kept quieter about.”
“It was her mistake to stay so loyal to Biden, and not give The View a better quote about their differences than ‘there’s not a thing that comes to mind,’ even though he’d weakened her campaign.”
“The Democratic argument about why they lost to Trump twice will get fresh material from 107 Days. It doesn’t absolve Harris, who has little advice for how her party can win again, or answer the questions about immigration and LGBT rights that staggered her last year.”
“There is very much a path here for us. But the first step is that Eric Adams has to get the fuck out of this race.”
— An aide to New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo, quoted by New York Magazine.
Oracle would recreate and provide security for a new U.S. version of TikTok’s algorithm under a deal taking shape to sell the popular Chinese-owned app to a consortium of American investors, Bloomberg reports.
The arrangement seeks to ensure that the American buyers control TikTok’s recommendation software in the U.S. following a divestiture by its Chinese parent.
Owners of the US-based TikTok would lease a copy of the algorithm from ByteDance that Oracle would then retrain “from the ground up.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent pledged to provide “all options for stabilization” to Argentine President Javier Milei as the South American country faces a market selloff in recent weeks, Bloomberg reports.
Steven Levy: “Tech got what it wanted by electing Trump. A year later, it looks more like a suicide pact.”
“Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that he was ready to extend by one year the last arms control treaty between Washington and Moscow that limits the number of nuclear weapons each side has if U.S. President Donald Trump does the same,” Reuters reports.
“Charlie Kirk’s memorial service Sunday left little doubt that his Turning Point USA organization would outlive him as a force in conservative politics — but with more attention than ever to a supercharged evangelical Christian message,” Axios reports.
“The five-hour service, webcast to millions and broadcast at one point by all major networks, was a call to action more than to grief. It canonized the 31-year-old conservative icon as not just a martyr to free speech, but to his faith as well.”
Washington Post: Charlie Kirk’s Christianity-infused politics appear poised to ascend within the GOP.
Paul Krugman: “We attracted investment from around the world in part because we had rule of law: Businesses trusted us to honor property rights and enforce contracts. So the Trumpists turned us into a nation where the government extorts ownership shares in corporations and masked government agents seize foreign workers, put them in chains, and imprison them under terrible conditions.”
“We lead the world in science thanks to our unmatched network of research universities and globally admired government agencies like the National Institutes of Health. So the Trumpists are doing their best to destroy both university and government research.”
“And our economic success — the way we have pulled ahead of other advanced nations over the past generation — rests almost entirely on our leadership in digital technology. So the Trumpists are pulling the rug out from under tech, too.”
“Democrats trying to counter President Donald Trump’s red-state gerrymander are facing a roadblock. Fifteen roadblocks, actually,” Politico reports.
“That’s how many Democratic-led states have a political trifecta — the same setup that helped Texas Republicans push through new maps last month.”
“But of those 15, only California has made a serious effort to respond in kind — and even that initiative may fail at the ballot box. Leaders in 14 other states with a Democratic governor and state legislature find themselves unable to move forward, hampered by reasons ranging from constitutional limitations, legal deadlines and maps that can’t be gerrymandered anymore. In perhaps an acknowledgment of these hurdles, Democrats have turned to the courts to try stopping Republican efforts.”
Politico: “On one side is the minority party, using what little leverage it has — a looming government funding deadline — to push for priorities it can’t enact otherwise. On the other is the majority, insisting a short-term funding punt is no place for negotiation.”
“If that sounds familiar, that’s because just such a scenario has played out dozens of times on Capitol Hill over the past decade and a half — usually with Republicans pushing for policy concessions and Democrats insisting on a ‘clean’ stopgap.”
“Not this time. The roles have been reversed between the two parties as Congress barrels toward a government shutdown on Oct. 1 with no obvious off-ramp in sight.”
Punchbowl News: “We’ll be blunt here: Congress is absolutely nowhere in funding the government.”
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.
