A new Emerson College/7 News poll finds Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) at risk of losing reelection, as he trails Rep. Joe Kennedy (D-MA), 58% to 42%, for the Democratic primary.
A new UMass-Lowell poll has Kennedy ahead 44% to 42%.
A new Emerson College/7 News poll finds Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) at risk of losing reelection, as he trails Rep. Joe Kennedy (D-MA), 58% to 42%, for the Democratic primary.
A new UMass-Lowell poll has Kennedy ahead 44% to 42%.
“History is written by the winners, so it largely depends on who is writing the history.”
— Attorney General Bill Barr, in an interview with CBS News, when asked how history would view his dropping of criminal charges against Michael Flynn.
Susan Glasser: “When I went to college, we used to joke during exam period that you were really in trouble when you started to lie to yourself and believe it. The President and at least some of his most fervent supporters appear now to be in the lying-to-yourself-and-believing-it stage of the pandemic. Truth has become so inconvenient that it’s better left aside for some alternate, less inconvenient reality. This is, of course, not the first time in the Trump Presidency, or even the first time during this pandemic, that there has been such a gap, but it appears to be a moment when there is a widening and very likely unsustainable gulf between Trumpian truth and what is actually happening.”
“That’s because the numbers are the numbers and, for Trump and for America, they look terrible… Trump appears to me to be increasingly terrified at the very real prospect of losing in November, as both national polls and surveys in battleground states currently show him doing.”
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New York Times: “Georgia police on Thursday arrested a white father and son and charged them with murder in the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old black man whose death in February has recently attracted widespread outrage.”
“Much of that anger has been focused on the fact that no charges had been brought against the father and son, Gregory and Travis McMichael, ages 64 and 34.”
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo backed off claims there was “enormous” evidence the coronavirus came from a Wuhan lab, ABC News reports.
Said Pompeo: “There’s evidence that it came from somewhere in the vicinity of the lab, but that could be wrong.”
He added: “We’ve seen evidence that it came from the lab. That may not be the case.”
“Mike Bloomberg’s decision to dump hundreds of former campaign staffers from his payroll — after promising them paychecks through the election — has left a trail of bad blood within the Democratic Party that’s now roiling a key part of its general election operation,” Politico reports.
“After accepting a much-needed $18 million donation from Bloomberg when he dropped out of the presidential campaign in March, Democratic National Committee officials have been pressuring battleground state parties to hire his former employees… Those staffers found themselves jobless after the billionaire broke his campaign’s public promise to keep them employed through November whether he won the nomination or not.”
New White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany was a harsh critic of then-candidate Donald Trump before she became a fierce advocate for him, including calling comments he made about Mexican immigrants in 2015 “racist,” CNN reports.
Before becoming a prominent pro-Trump commentator during his first campaign, McEnany said it was “unfortunate” and “inauthentic” to call him a Republican.
She also called him a “showman” and “not a serious candidate,” adding “I don’t want to claim this guy.”
“A group of Republican lawmakers has proposed to rename the street in front of the Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C., after the Wuhan-based whistleblower doctor who warned about the coronavirus outbreak,” The Hill reports.
President Trump called former national security adviser Michael Flynn “an even greater warrior” and “an innocent man” after the Justice Department dropped charges against him, the Daily Beast reports.
Said Trump: “Now in my book he’s an even greater warrior. What happened to him should never happen again.”
He then insisted that Flynn was “targeted” by the Obama administration, saying that “they are dishonest people” and then accused them of “treason.”
“President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the coronavirus pandemic and other bilateral issues in a phone call Thursday, as tensions between the two countries remain high,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
According to Bloomberg, Trump said he discussed the U.S. investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election with Putin, calling the probe a “hoax.”
“The Justice Department on Thursday said it is dropping the criminal case against President Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, abandoning a prosecution that became a rallying cry for Trump and his supporters in attacking the FBI’s Russia investigation,” the AP reports.
“The move is a stunning reversal for one of the signature cases brought by special counsel Robert Mueller.”
“It comes even though prosecutors for the last three years had maintained that Flynn had lied to the FBI about his conversations with the Russian ambassador in a January 2017 interview. Flynn himself admitted as much, and became a key cooperator for Mueller as he investigated ties between Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign.”
“The White House is considering another possible delay in the deadline for filing federal taxes along with additional measures aimed at providing economic relief for Americans that can be adopted without legislation from Congress,” NBC News reports.
“Tax Day has already been pushed to July 15 but could be extended further to September 15 or as late as December 15.”
Bloomberg: “Speaker Nancy Pelosi dismissed President Trump’s recent call for a payroll tax cut and changes in the capital gains tax, saying that wouldn’t help the millions of workers thrown out of their jobs and others struggling in an economy shut down by the pandemic.”
Politico: “With Trump’s poll numbers sagging amid his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, the offensive underscores how his advisers believe they must turn the race into a choice election between the president and Biden, rather than solely a referendum on Trump’s performance.”
“The cash-flush campaign is slated to more than $10 million on an advertising blitz across broadcast and cable channels, as well as online.”
Just published: The End of October: A novel by Lawrence Wright.
“It’s unnerving” Wright, a New Yorker staff writer and Pulitzer-winning journalist, told The Guardian on the surreal fortune of releasing a global pandemic novel during a global pandemic.
“It was meant to be a warning cry, when we weren’t buffeted by all this dire news. Whenever I open the paper it feels like I’m reading my own book. It’s weird.”
Wall Street Journal: “Large parts of Europe have been ravaged by the pandemic, but Germany has fared better. While it has seen roughly the same number of diagnosed infections as similar-size neighbors—Italy, Spain, France, the U.K.—it has registered only about one-quarter as many deaths.”
“And German authorities, unlike those in Italy and Spain, gave all factories the option to stay open through the pandemic. More than 80% of them did so, and only one-quarter have canceled investments.”
Key lessons: “Businesses implemented strict safety rules early on. Managers involved unions and employees in safety planning. Regional governments moved quickly to test and trace chains of infection. And strong ties to China, where many German firms have operations, gave companies a jump on planning.”
“One week after Georgia allowed dine-in restaurants, hair salons and other businesses to reopen, an additional 62,440 visitors arrived there daily, most from surrounding states where such businesses remained shuttered, according to an analysis of smartphone location data,” the Washington Post reports.
“Researchers at the University of Maryland say the data provides some of the first hard evidence that reopening some state economies ahead of others could potentially worsen and prolong the spread of the novel coronavirus. Any impetus to travel, public health experts say, increases the number of people coming into contact with each other and raises the risk of transmission.”
“The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to temporarily block a ruling that requires the Justice Department to give Congress certain secret grand jury material from the investigation conducted by former special counsel Robert Mueller,” the Washington Post reports.
Megyn Kelly announced she’s done an on-camera interview with Tara Reade, the woman who accused Joe Biden of sexual assault.
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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