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Susan Collins Criticizes Trump’s Canada Insults

September 11, 2026 at 2:08 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Sen. Susan Collins, who faces her toughest re-election campaign to date, is working closely with top Trump administration officials to try to lessen the impact of the U.S.’s escalating trade dispute with Canada,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“But she says President Trump’s own tone and rhetoric surrounding the tariffs have been inappropriate and unhelpful in her border state, whose culture and economy is intertwined with the U.S.’s northern neighbor.”

Said Collins: “We’re linked in so many ways. It’s economic, it’s emotional, and to hear the president gratuitously calling prime ministers ‘governor’ or suggesting that Canada should be part of the United States or renaming Lake Ontario is painful. It is not conducive to getting back to the table and resolving these issues.”

GOP Candidate Backs Away From ‘Stolen Election’ Claims

September 11, 2026 at 1:38 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Republican congressional hopeful Ryan Elijah, who defeated embattled Rep. Cory Mills in a bitter primary contest last month, backtracked this week on a series of previous claims he made about the 2020 election being stolen from President Donald Trump,” the Washington Sun reports.

“But when asked by local Florida TV station WKMG News 6 Wednesday if he thought the election was stolen, Elijah said, ‘No.'”

Iranians Run Out of Gas as Economic Squeeze Takes Hold

September 11, 2026 at 1:27 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Long lines at gas stations. Strikes by truckers. A government struggling to maintain the subsidies that had helped much of the population keep their heads above water,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“The economic fallout from the war and the American blockade is adding to the pain facing ordinary Iranians who are already struggling with a plunging currency, worsening joblessness and rising prices for everything from food to trash bags.”

Giuliani Manages to Be Cordial to Mamdani at Ground Zero

September 11, 2026 at 1:22 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

New York Magazine: “News cameras captured the moment as Mamdani and Giuliani shared a brief handshake and a few words, inaudible in the recording. On social media, several people concluded that Giuliani likely said, ‘I’ll pray for you. It’s a really hard job.'”

CIA Officer Working Towards Plea Deal in Gold Bars Case

September 11, 2026 at 1:17 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“A former CIA officer who was arrested in May after investigators found 303 gold bars worth $40 million at his home is working to finalize a plea deal with federal prosecutors that could help keep the case shrouded in mystery,” NBC News reports.

Vance’s Closing Speech Doubles as a Glimpse at 2028

September 11, 2026 at 1:01 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Vice President JD Vance’s speech at the Republican Midterm Convention on Thursday night offered a glimpse of how he is positioning himself within the Republican Party — as a potential heir to the MAGA movement who can speak its language while attempting to broaden its appeal,” ABC News reports.

“The most striking throughline in his remarks was grievance, particularly around race and identity.”

“Repeatedly, Vance argued that Republicans and their voters have been unfairly labeled as racist for raising concerns about immigration, crime, government fraud and cultural change. Democrats, he claimed, don’t simply disagree with Republicans — he said they dismiss legitimate concerns by attacking the people who raise them.”

Trump’s ‘Convention’ Tried to Reach Die-Hard Republicans

September 11, 2026 at 12:35 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

New York Times: “As in many turbulent TV productions, there were differing impulses behind its creation. It was the pet project of the president, made on the theory that he has a hold on low-propensity voters who will go to the polls only for him. The counterargument is the president’s ratings among other voters, who might go to the polls against candidates who embrace him.”

“Thus we got Schrödinger’s Convention, made in the paradoxical hope that it would be both watched and not watched. It was carried in its entirety on C-SPAN and in considerable part by conservative outlets including Fox News and Newsmax. It was also up against high-profile NFL games each night, which one could see as a challenge or a blessing. Surely at least some Republicans would have been just as happy if no one watched.”

“For better or worse, some of us did. What we saw was the culmination of the decades-long trend that has turned conventions from substantive political events into pure long-form TV ads.”

Democrats Emphasize Early and In-Person Voting

September 11, 2026 at 12:21 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Democrats and progressive groups are urging voters to cast their ballots as early as possible — and increasingly, in person — amid concerns that President Donald Trump’s intervention and postal delays could disrupt the mail voting process this fall,” NBC News reports.

9/11 Fades From Congressional Memory

September 11, 2026 at 12:02 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Washington Sun: “Less than 10% of lawmakers who were at the Capitol that day are still in a Congress that has no plans to mark a fateful day of its history.”

Stick a Fork in ‘Em

September 11, 2026 at 11:47 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Andrew Egger: “Ever since Democrats’ major overperformance in last year’s off-year elections, I’ve been saying over and over: time is a finite resource for Donald Trump and his party. If they wanted to stave off disaster in the midterms, they would need to get moving fast to woo back disaffected members of their 2024 coalition. Every day spent failing to achieve that goal was a day wasted.”

“Now, in the afterglow of this week’s ludicrous, somnambulant GOP midterm convention, I’m about ready to call it. Republicans are out of ideas and out of time.”

Bonus Quote of the Day

September 11, 2026 at 11:31 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“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.

Trump Ties Iran War to U.S. Security in 9/11 Speech

September 11, 2026 at 11:25 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“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.”

Why Donald Trump’s Coalition Is Disintegrating

September 11, 2026 at 11:23 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

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.”

Weekly News Quiz

September 11, 2026 at 11:00 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

How well did you pay attention to politics this week?

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Trump’s Speech Draws 2.5 Million on Fox News

September 11, 2026 at 10:48 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“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.”

Navy Secretary Confirms Iran Attack On Bahrain Base

September 11, 2026 at 10:43 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“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.”

How to Make an Interview Go Viral

September 11, 2026 at 10:41 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

There’s no better way to draw attention to something than to tell people they’re not allowed to see it.

Jimmy Kimmel demonstrated that this week when he announced that an interview with Texas U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico (D) couldn’t be broadcast on his show.

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GOP Influencers Largely Avoided Talking About Economy

September 11, 2026 at 10:28 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

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.”

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About Political Wire

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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