“I’m not going to lose in this state. I don’t think I’m going to lose in any other state.”
— President Trump, quoted in Iowa by the Des Moines Register.
“I’m not going to lose in this state. I don’t think I’m going to lose in any other state.”
— President Trump, quoted in Iowa by the Des Moines Register.
“Jay Sekulow, one of President Donald Trump’s lead attorneys during the impeachment trial, is being paid for his legal work through a rented $80-a-month mailbox a block away from the White House,” the AP reports.
“The Pennsylvania Avenue box appears to be the sole physical location of the Constitutional Litigation and Advocacy Group, a for-profit corporation co-owned by Sekulow. The firm has no website and is not listed in national legal directories. The District of Columbia Bar has no record of it, and no attorneys list it as their employer.”
A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal national poll finds Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden statistically tied at the top of the Democratic field.
Sanders leads with 27% support, followed by Biden at 26% and Elizabeth Warren at 15%, Michael Bloomberg at 9%, Pete Buttigieg at 7% and Amy Klobuchar at 5%.
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Speaking at a private event in Austin Thursday, Former National Security Advisor John Bolton defended government officials who testified in front of the U.S. House impeachment inquiry, KXAN reports.
Bolton defended former diplomatic and state department officials Fiona Hill, Tim Morrison, Alex Vindman, Bill Taylor, and Marie Yovanovitch.
Said Bolton: “All of them acted in the best interest of the country as they saw it and consistent to what they thought our policies were.”
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) announced that he will not support calling new witnesses in President Trump’s impeachment trial.
For what it’s worth, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) will vote in favor of calling new witnesses. It’s possible that Sens. Mitt Romney (R-UT) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) will join Collins, resulting in a 50-50 tie.
BuzzFeed News: “The majority of the Spanish-language links to issues on Pete Buttigieg’s campaign website lead back to English language versions of the actual plans — except for the links to donate and caucus for the candidate, which are translated into Spanish.”
When asked to identify the contrast between himself and Sen. Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden told the Wall Street Journal: “I’m a Democrat.”
Asked if he was inferring that Sanders was not a Democrat, Biden responded: “Well, he says he’s not. He’s not a registered Democrat.”
George Conway: “Corruption, for all the Trump lawyers’ attempt to muddy the waters with tortured interpretations of the Constitution, is what this impeachment is all about. Trump acted with corrupt intent to damage a political opponent. Testimony from former national security adviser John Bolton seems certain to underscore that point.”
“Which is precisely why Republican senators seem so desperate not to hear it and so willing to entertain a false reading of the Constitution that would effectively render the impeachment clause a nullity. Should they do that, they will have sacrificed their own oaths to protect their own electoral prospects, and the country and the Constitution will have been saddled with a terrible precedent. The Senate will have told Trump that, indeed, he can do whatever he wants.”
“It’s more than frustrating—it’s pathetic. If you had any regard at all for the prerogatives of the legislative branch, to allow the White House to stonewall the House of Representatives in a completely unprecedented way, and then accept a set of rules … that are just a cover up for what the President has done, I think demonstrates a complete lack of regard for what this institution is supposed to be about.”
— Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO), quoted by the Daily Beast, on the GOP’s refusal to budge on impeachment.
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) will announce later tonight his decision on whether to call new witnesses in President Trump’s impeachment trial.
“President Trump’s border wall likely will require the installation of hundreds of storm gates to prevent flash floods from undermining or knocking it over, gates that must be left open for months every summer during ‘monsoon season’ in the desert,” the Washington Post reports.
“The open, unmanned gates in remote areas already have allowed for the easy entry of smugglers and migrants into the United States.”
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) told ABC News that President Trump might target Republican senators who vote for additional witnesses in the Senate impeachment trial.
Said Christie: “You could very well see the president encouraging or creating primaries against senators that are up this year if they went and voted the other way I could definitely see him at least attempting to do that.”
“Nine outside groups backing Bernie Sanders will begin coordinating efforts to boost the presidential candidate in what they say is the largest independent mobilizing drive in the Democratic field,” NBC News reports.
“The independent expenditure, dubbed ‘People Power for Bernie,’ will be barred from coordinating with Sanders’ campaign, but members of the coalition will be able to team up on grassroots organizing and potentially advertising.”
“The web of connections between Donald Trump’s convicted campaign manager and an indicted man who tried to dig up dirt on his political rival runs tighter and longer than previously understood,” the Daily Beast reports.
“Rudy Giuliani ally Igor Fruman and ex-Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort have been friendly for years… And that relationship — stretching from New York to London to Kyiv — long predated Rudy Giuliani’s wide-ranging attempts to discredit the evidence that played a key role in kicking off Manafort’s political downfall and eventual incarceration.”
In an effort to rebuff arguments that calling witnesses would prolong the trial, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the lead House impeachment manager, suggested limiting the depositions of witnesses to one week, the New York Times reports.
Said Schiff: “Is that too much to ask in the name of fairness — that we follow the Clinton model, that we take one week? Are we really driven by the timing of the State of the Union, should that be a guiding principle? Can’t we take one week to hear from these witnesses?”
USA Today: “The spot – texted to Trump supporters by the campaign on Thursday – features a narrator and news reports discussing wage growth, job increases, and record low levels of unemployment for African-Americans and Hispanics. The commercial ends with Trump at one of his political rallies proclaiming: ‘And ladies and gentlemen, the best is yet to come.'”
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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