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“Rep. Tom Kean Jr. represents New Jersey’s most competitive district this November — but nobody, even his GOP colleagues, can say where he’s been for the past month,” Politico reports.
“A scion of one of the state’s most storied political dynasties, Kean’s team says the two-term congressmember is facing unspecified health issues. The New Jersey Republican hasn’t voted since March 5 and has missed almost 50 roll call votes.”
Secretary of the Navy John Phelan is leaving the Trump administration “effective immediately,” CNBC reports.
A Pentagon spokesman did not provide an explanation for Phelan’s sudden departure, which comes as the U.S. Navy enforces a high-stakes blockade of Iranian ports near the Strait of Hormuz.
“In the more than three years since he became the top House Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries has sometimes struggled to escape the shadow of his esteemed predecessor,” Politico reports.
“He stood alone in the limelight Wednesday, however, after engineering a feat of political hardball — a statewide vote paving the way for new Virginia congressional maps that could wipe out four GOP-held seats — that earned praise from Nancy Pelosi herself.”
“President Donald Trump’s political team is defending its push to redraw congressional districts mid-decade, a break from historical practice that provoked partisan retaliation, cost hundreds of millions of dollars and, so far, has left Republicans no better positioned to retain the House,” the Washington Post reports.
CNBC: “Prediction market platform Kalshi said Wednesday it had suspended and fined three candidates for Congress from Minnesota, Texas and Virginia for ‘political insider trading’ activity on their own campaigns.”
“Personally, sir, even as you seem distracted while I talk to you about deadly diseases, I think you’re dangerous to the American public, and you ought to be fired. And if you’re not fired, you ought to have the decency to resign. You’re way in over your head.”
— Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA), at a Senate hearing with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Former Rep. George Santos (R-NY), who was expelled from Congress, floated the idea of running in 2028 to oust Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), the Daily Beast reports.
Said Santos: “Think I can’t win? Try me, my life is an open book and I’ll take aim at any seat and primary someone out just to prove a point, the American people rather vote for someone who is open about their life and past and seeking truth than someone who is shady and full of secrets.”
“The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals slapped down a California law that would have forced immigration agents and other law enforcement officers to display ID while on duty, with a ruling Wednesday finding that the measure “attempts to directly regulate” the federal government,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
New York Times: “The FBI began investigating a New York Times reporter last month after she wrote about the bureau’s director, Kash Patel, using bureau personnel to provide his girlfriend with government security and transportation.”
“With midterm elections looming, embattled congressional Republicans would like to be spending their scarce floor time showing voters they are tackling the high cost of living,” the New York Times reports.
“Instead, they are spinning their wheels on a series of bills with limited political payoff, if any, lacking the votes — or the consensus in their own ranks — to move ahead with much else.”
“Six months from voting that will decide control of Congress, Republicans in the House and Senate are bogged down on an intraparty fight over surveillance powers.”
New York Times: “Democrats have tried and failed several times to invoke a provision of the 1973 War Powers Resolution, a law aimed at curbing a president’s ability to wage war without congressional approval, to challenge the conflict in Iran.”
“Yet the law also establishes a set of deadlines, the first of which is coming on May 1, that could increase the pressure on the Trump administration in the coming days.”
Politico: “A group of House Republicans openly questioned the mid-decade redistricting war sparked by President Donald Trump on Wednesday, a day after a Democratic victory in Virginia threatened the GOP’s chances of holding onto its slim House majority in November.”
“The recriminations are not new — plenty of GOP lawmakers had private doubts about Trump’s aggressive push to draw maps in Texas and other red states. But now members are growing increasingly vocal as it appears the tit-for-tat he started could now result in a Democratic advantage.”
Washington Post: “Billions in frozen assets may be handed back to Iran. Agreements to limit Tehran’s nuclear program may eventually expire. And some of the same hard-line leaders who crushed nationwide protests in January could end up better-resourced than they were before President Donald Trump unleashed crushing airstrikes more than seven weeks ago.”
“After a decade of fiercely attacking a previous deal with Iran, Trump, pursuing a way out of a war he launched, has authorized U.S. negotiators to consider a bargain that involves many of the same trade-offs one of his predecessors confronted.”
New York Times: “Individual Democratic candidates in key midterm races are doing much better financially than their Republican counterparts. But the party should not get too excited about having more cash.”
“That’s because the Republican Party’s main political committees and allied groups have built a staggering advantage of roughly $600 million over the Democratic ones. The Republican side has about $843.6 million stockpiled compared with just $243 million for Democrats, accounting for debts.”
CNBC: “Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Wednesday that ‘many’ oil-rich U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf have requested a financial backstop amid economic turbulence from the war with Iran.”
Time: “Nearly two months after the United States joined Israel in launching a war against Iran, Congress remains as formally disengaged as in the first days of the conflict, having yet to hold a single public hearing on the issue and facing a looming statutory deadline that may come and go without a clear assertion of its authority.”
“The absence of sustained oversight has left lawmakers grasping for basic details about the war’s trajectory even as its economic and political consequences ripple at home. Interviews with more than a dozen lawmakers in both parties reveal a vacuum of information and a lack of urgency from leadership to fill it. While Administration officials have hosted a handful of classified briefings about the war, many lawmakers complain they were woefully insufficient, leaving them with more questions than answers.”
“Our message to Florida Republicans is fuck around and find out. If they go down the road of a Desantis dummymander, they’ll find themselves in the same situation as Texas Republicans. They started this war. And we’re gonna finish it.”
— House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), speaking to reporters.
“The White House is using everything in its toolkit to try to bring down energy prices — but GOP campaign veterans say time is running out if the party is going to avoid a disaster at the ballot box in November,” Politico reports.
“The warning comes as President Donald Trump and his administration continue to send mixed messages on its war against Iran and the resultant spike in U.S. gasoline prices. Prices at the pump have risen by more than a third since the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran and the oil prices that underlie the cost of gasoline remain exceptionally volatile and could jump again in the weeks ahead, just as drivers will hit the road for summer vacations.”
Playbook: “As the war approaches the two-month mark and the prospect of an imminent off-ramp fades, oil prices risk becoming a bigger political liability for the White House heading into the midterms.”
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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