“Those of us in authority on that day did not see the nature of the danger in time to prevent the attack of 9/11. We did what we knew to do, but by definition, it was not enough.”
— Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, quoted by the New York Post.
“President Donald Trump defended the war in Iran during a Pentagon ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, tying the conflict to the U.S.’s decades-long fight against terrorism,” Bloomberg reports.
Said Trump: “It is a war on sick, horrible terror. We salute our first responders and law enforcement, and we love them, and we salute the service members working right now to ensure the world’s number one sponsor of terror, the Islamic Republic of Iran, will never ever have a nuclear weapon.”
The Economist: “To understand why Mr Trump’s coalition is falling apart, recall how he won election to a second term in 2024. Covid-era spending and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine pushed inflation to 9% in 2022, the highest rate in decades.”
“For a population accustomed to predictable prices, this was a profound shock. Even as the economy grew and inflation fell in 2024, Americans rated prices as their top concern. Accepting the Republican nomination in July of that year, Mr Trump promised that under his leadership ‘inflation will vanish completely.’ Democrats, meanwhile, struggled to persuade voters they could be trusted. The 81-year-old incumbent, Joe Biden, did not appear up to the job. A last-minute switch to Ms Harris, Mr Biden’s vice-president who had flailed in a presidential primary just four years before, was not enough to save the party.”
“Mr Trump’s victory over Ms Harris, with a 1.5-percentage-point margin, rested on a fragile coalition of voters dissatisfied with Democratic leadership.”
“President Donald Trump’s speech on the opening night of the Republican midterm convention drew about 2.5 million viewers on Fox News, according to Nielsen data, potentially undercutting his claim the event ‘beat the NFL’ opening night,” Reuters reports.
“Ratings for the game are not yet available, but the NFL averaged about 18 million viewers per game last season, and last year’s opener drew close to 28 million.”
“Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao confirmed this week that a major American military hub in Bahrain was badly damaged by Iranian attacks — and he was unsure whether keeping U.S. forces there is feasible long-term,” the New York Post reports.
Said Cao: “They blow the hell out of Bahrain.”
New York Times: “More than 100 influencers were invited to the midterm convention by members of the Republican National Committee, a committee spokeswoman said. They were given some of the best seats in the arena and special ‘creator’ credentials that granted them access to a list of Republican Party leaders eager to sit for interviews.”
“They recorded content from a special platform directly across from the stage where the president spoke. They partied after hours at an event hosted by TikTok, where they snacked on miniature cheesecakes and an assortment of cake balls.”
“The difficult task facing these dozens of conservative influencers was figuring out how to boost the Republican Party, when the image of prosperity projected from the stage was different from the reality of surging costs.”
Rolling Stone: “It’s still Donald Trump’s party — and don’t you doubt it.”
“On the second night of the Republican midterm convention in Dallas — an event ostensibly meant to boost the GOP candidates on the ballot in November — the party fully embraced its status as a cult of devotion to a single man: the president.”
“In a video played on the screens throughout the American Airlines Center, a voice declared that ‘on June 14th, 1946, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, ‘I need a caretaker,’ so God gave us Trump.'”
“The video opened by zooming into planet Earth, landing on a childhood photo of the president.”
“Indiana’s Supreme Court on Thursday ruled after a months-long recount that a Republican incumbent state senator narrowly defeated his Trump-backed challenger in the GOP primary for the state Senate seat,” NBC News reports.
“The court declared state Sen. Spencer Deery the winner of the Senate District 23 Republican primary in May, certifying that he beat challenger Paula Copenhaver by three votes, and ordering that his name appear on the general election ballot in November.”
“President Donald Trump’s surgeon general nominee reported investments in the tobacco company Philip Morris International,” NewsNation reports.
“Nicole Saphier disclosed these investments in an ethics agreement, where she pledged to completely or partially divest from those companies, as well as shed stock holdings with a host of pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry leaders — including Eli Lilly, Biogen, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Merck, AbbVie and more.”
“A groundswell of urgency over artificial intelligence is surging in Congress amid growing fears that the technology could destroy civilization,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“After years of limited actions, dozens of lawmakers are now touting new proposals to regulate artificial-intelligence models that have stepped up their capabilities.”
Axios: Congress gripped by AI panic after doomsday warnings.
“President Donald Trump and his Republican allies sought to tackle voters’ concerns about the economy and the rising cost of living at their two-day midterm convention, with affordability proving to be one of the biggest themes throughout,” NBC News reports.
“The message was clear: Help is on the way — but it’s going to come after the November elections.”
“Iran used American-developed artificial-intelligence models to try to target U.S. Navy ships in the Middle East, according to an Anthropic report warning of emerging national-security dangers,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“An Iranian-linked group compiled information from ship and aircraft transponders, military photographs and commercial satellite photos to track American warships and look for vulnerabilities in their ship-born communications.”
A new Quantus Insights poll in Minnesota finds Peggy Flanagan (D) leading Michele Tafoya (R) in the U.S. Senate race, 48% to 44%.
A new Quantus Insights poll in Florida finds Ashley Moody (R) leading Angie Nixon (D) in the U.S. Senate race, 50% to 43%.
“Chancellor Friedrich Merz is determined to hold on to power in Germany in defiance of the growing numbers within his party seeking to push him out of office,” Bloomberg reports.
“The German leader is facing a wave of frustration over communication missteps and his failure to gain traction with the public as he struggles to revive economic growth. The far-right’s stunning victory in a state election on Sunday, putting the party within reach of leading a right-wing state government for the first time since World War II, has thrown Merz’s leadership into more disarray.”
A new YouGov poll in Iowa finds Rob Sand (D) leading Zach Lahn (R) in the governor’s race, 50% to 39%.
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.
