Police are investigating multiple shots being fired into the home of Alabama state Sen. Vivian Figures (D), the Alabama Political Reporter reports.
“Figures was not home at the time of the shooting — around 5 a.m. Thursday — and has not commented on the incident.”
Former President Donald again boasted of passing a cognitive test from 2018, bringing up the test to criticize President Joe Biden, Insider reports.
Said Trump: “Did I ace it? I aced it. And I’d like to see Biden ace it. He won’t ace it.”
He added: “He will get the first two. There are 35 questions and the first two or three are pretty easy. They are the animals. This is a lion, a giraffe. When he gets to around 20, he’s gonna have a little hard time. I think he’s gonna have a hard time with the first few, actually.”
“Although Trump has touted the three-year-old result as proof of his brilliance, it is in fact a basic screening process for evidence of cognitive problems. The vast majority of people would be expected to easily pass.”
“The U.S. economy added 850,000 jobs in June as the labor market heated up after a spring lull,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Politico: “The report is likely to ease some pressure on President Joe Biden over the labor market’s slower-than-expected recovery. The GOP has hammered Biden over generous federal jobless benefits, which governors and lawmakers say are among the reasons workers have been reluctant to reenter the market.”
“The Biden administration is introducing an unprecedented effort to encourage eligible immigrants to apply for US citizenship,” CNN reports.
“That includes, for example, holding naturalization ceremonies at national parks to raise awareness, partnering with the US Postal Service to display promotional posters at Postal Service facilities about becoming a US citizen, and engaging with the Department of Veterans Affairs and veteran service organizations to find ways to educate service members and veterans on citizenship.”
“Democrats in Trump-won districts are hesitant about their party using the reconciliation process to ram through a second, partisan infrastructure package,” according to Axios, which “surveyed all seven House Democrats representing districts former President Trump won in 2020 to hear their concerns with the current infrastructure debate.”
“Top White House officials are mobilizing to defend Vice President Kamala Harris amid a gusher of leaks about dysfunction and infighting in her office,” Axios reports.
Said White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain: “The President’s trust and confidence in her is obvious when you see them in the Oval Office together.”
Said Biden senior adviser Cedric Richmond: “It’s a whisper campaign designed to sabotage her.”
“After nearly 20 years, the U.S. military left Bagram Airfield, the epicenter of its war to oust the Taliban and hunt down the al-Qaida perpetrators of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on America,” the AP reports.
Punchbowl News: “McCarthy initially objected in February to the number of GOP and Democratic seats on the proposed panel, and on how subpoenas would be issued, Pelosi agreed to his suggestions, only to have McCarthy change his position and raise a completely different objection over the scope of the investigation.”
“When Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), chair of the Homeland Security Committee, cut a deal in mid-May with GOP Rep. John Katko (R-NY), ranking member on Homeland, over legislation to create a bipartisan commission, McCarthy ended up publicly repudiating the agreement his own member made. Thirty-five House Republicans voted for the bill anyway, only to see it blocked by Senate Republicans.”
“And now with Cheney on the select committee, Pelosi has once more forced McCarthy into a tough situation. Compared to the proposal that Thompson and Katko hashed out — or the compromise floated by Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) — the select committee approved by the House is bad format for McCarthy and the Republicans. There’s no time limit on the investigation, Republicans have no say in who or how many subpoenas can be issued and Pelosi has a veto over McCarthy’s appointments.”
Molly Jong-Fast: “Republicans have started to blur the lines between birth control and abortion in the hopes of making it harder for American women to obtain either.”
“And nowhere is this clearer than in the Missouri statehouse, where lawmakers debated whether they needed to restrict Medicaid coverage of birth control and limit payments to Planned Parenthood. Yes, as the Kansas City Star reported, lawmakers there spent hours last week in a discussion that ‘resembled a remedial sex-education course.’ It was a tricky play, attacking birth control as a way to attack abortion, and it didn’t work…this time.”
Politico: “The Federal Trade Commission’s first meeting under new Chair Lina Khan broke decades of precedent Thursday by taking place in public — something unheard-of for the notably secretive antitrust and consumer protection agency. Then it pushed through a series of actions on progressive Democrats’ wish list: Fines for companies that lie about products being ‘Made in America.’ Greater latitude for launching antitrust probes and lawsuits. And a wider door to writing new regulations — something else the FTC hasn’t done much of in decades.”
“All this came despite fierce objections from the commission’s two Republicans, in a sign that partisan rancor is also back in vogue at the Biden-era FTC.”
Daily Beast: “A new social media network led by Trump adviser Jason Miller is backed by a fugitive Chinese billionaire who once invited Steve Bannon to live on his yacht.
JD Vance (R), who is running for U.S. Senate in Ohio, deleted a tweet about voting for Evan McMullin for President in 2016.
He also deleted a tweet saying he found Donald Trump “reprehensible” from October 2016.
A new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds 59% of Americans believe crime is an “extremely” or “very” serious problem in the U.S., an increase from 51% in Gallup polling last fall and the highest level since 2017.
Americans give President Biden negative ratings for how he has handled the issue of crime, according to the poll, with 38% approving and 48% disapproving, while a sizable 14% offer no opinion.
David Frum: “One of Trump’s skills as a politician is preparing the battlefield in advance. In the case of his first impeachment, he chose to argue outright innocence—‘it was a perfect call’—and no matter how mountainous the evidence of wrongdoing, that was the line he maintained to the end.”
“This time, though, Trump is not claiming that ‘all taxes were paid’ or that ‘it was a perfect tax return.’ He’s readying his supporters for bad revelations about his company’s taxes and directing them to a fallback line that singling him out as a tax scofflaw is politically unfair.”
“That line of defense may well rally Trump’s supporters. It will not do him much good in court.”
Vanity Fair: Ooops. The Trump Organization kept literal spreadsheets of its crimes.
California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis (D) ended months of speculation Thursday by calling the gubernatorial recall election for Sept. 14, Politico reports.
“The scores of contenders seeking to replace Newsom will now have about two weeks to officially declare their candidacies before a July 16 filing deadline. That also creates an intense time crunch for Newsom’s efforts to correct a legal error and be listed as a Democrat on the ballot: Newsom’s lawyers are due to argue their case in court July 9, about a week before elections officials will finalize the list of candidates.”
Tom Kean, Jr. (R) will seek the Republican nomination for Congress in New Jersey’s 7th district next year, setting up a widely-anticipated rematch of his 2020 bid to unseat Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ), the New Jersey Globe reports.
“Turkey formally withdrew Thursday from a landmark international treaty protecting women from violence, and signed in its own city of Istanbul, though President Recep Tayyip Erdogan insisted it won’t be a step backward for women,” the Associated Press reports.
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.