“We can’t just be a campaign about defeating President Trump. A simple campaign is not enough to beat him. It has to be a movement.”
— Joe Biden, quoted by the Los Angeles Times.
“We can’t just be a campaign about defeating President Trump. A simple campaign is not enough to beat him. It has to be a movement.”
— Joe Biden, quoted by the Los Angeles Times.
President Trump’s net approval rating has plunged in every key battleground state since taking office in January 2017, according to Morning Consult’s tracking poll.
New York Times: “American farmers have become collateral damage in a trade war that Mr. Trump began to help manufacturers and other companies that he believes have been hurt by China’s ‘unfair’ trade practices.”
“More than a year into the trade dispute, sales of American soybeans, pork, wheat and other agricultural products to China have dried up as Beijing retaliates against Mr. Trump’s tariffs on Chinese imports. Lucrative contracts that farmers long relied on for a significant source of income have evaporated, with Chinese buyers looking to other nations like Brazil and Canada to get the commodities they need. Farm bankruptcy filings in the year through June were up 13 percent from 2018 and loan delinquency rates are on the rise, according to the American Farm Bureau.”
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New York Times: “It is a trial tailor-made to grab the attention of this city’s power brokers: In a federal courtroom this month, one of Washington’s most prominent lawyers — a former White House counsel and attorney to global statesmen and other icons — is battling criminal charges of lying to investigators about his work for a shady foreign client.”
“But the most riveting aspect of the case against the lawyer, Gregory Craig, is not his innocence or guilt. Rather, it is the depiction of the seamy world of power brokers like Mr. Craig that prosecutors have painted during nearly two weeks of testimony and in an array of court filings.”
Joe Biden defends the Affordable Care Act in a new ad running in Iowa.
Said Biden: “Obamacare is personal to me. When I see the president try to tear down, and others propose to replace it and start over that’s personal to me too. We’ve got to build on what we did because every American deserves affordable health care.”
Joe Walsh, who has announced a Republican primary challenge to President Trump, was among the high-profile U.S. political figures ensnared by Sacha Baron Cohen last year when he was convinced to speak “about the benefits of teaching children as young as preschoolers how to use guns in what was, unbeknown to them, a fictional program,” the Washington Post reports.
Said Walsh in the video: “The intensive three-week Kinderguardian course introduces specially selected children from 12 to 4 years old to pistols, rifles, semiautomatics and a rudimentary knowledge of mortars. In less than a month — less than a month — a first-grader can become a first grenade-er.”
Walsh then provides the clincher at the end of the video: “Happy shooting, kids.”
New York Times: “He is one poll away from becoming the 11th Democrat to qualify for the September debate ahead of a Wednesday deadline. If he qualifies, he will prevent all the top contenders from sharing the same stage, as the field will be split over two nights. If he falls short, he is on track to make the stage in October.”
“Older, white, male and wildly wealthy, Mr. Steyer would seem an unlikely messenger for a Democratic Party passionately debating racial and gender diversity, generational change and inequalities in American society. But his status as a virtual one-man ‘super PAC’ is already upending the carefully laid strategies of Democratic rivals who now must grapple with the fact that they are unlikely to have the airwaves to themselves in Iowa or New Hampshire.”
Politico: “Warren is enjoying a comeback because she has convinced many skittish progressives that she won’t let Trump disrupt her relentless focus on policy solutions. And she has convinced many Native American leaders that her policy proposals for indigenous communities are more important than what she has said in the past about her ancestry.”
“But because Warren’s comeback has relied on restoring her standing on the left, she has not done anything to address concerns potentially percolating among swing voters. A detailed white paper on Native American policy has no bearing on whether a moderate white suburbanite believes Warren is of good character. And since Warren has apologized for her past claims, she remains open to the charge she was dishonest when, during her academic career, she relied on nothing more than family lore to identify herself as Native American.”
“The GOP majority in the Senate is shaping up as a firewall for Republicans who are worried that President Trump might falter and lose the White House next year,” The Hill reports.
“Republicans see winning back the House majority as a tough climb in 2020, and head-to-head matchups between Trump and various Democratic presidential contenders show the president behind his potential challengers.”
“Though Republicans overall are optimistic about Trump’s reelection prospects, they see holding the Senate, where they have a 53-47 edge, as crucial given the shape of races for the White House and lower chamber. And they’re playing their cards accordingly.”
“I hear the folks who say I should wait my turn, but with due respect — I’m not sure this is a moment for waiting.”
— Rep. Joe Kennedy III (D-MA), quoted by the Boston Globe, on a possible U.S. Senate primary against Se. Ed Markey (D-MA).
“Joe Biden’s younger brother told potential business partners that the former vice president would help their firm land business with court systems and would incorporate their health care model into his 2020 presidential campaign,” Politico reports.
“The allegations are consistent with others made over the years that relatives of Biden have sought to enrich themselves off of his public service. But they go further, representing the first explicit claims that James Biden offered to have the former vice president use his clout to further private business interests.
“The allegations come in sworn declarations made by executives at firms suing Biden’s brother that were filed in federal court on Friday. They do not allege any wrongdoing by Joe Biden or indicate that the former vice president had knowledge of his brother’s alleged promises.”
Reuters: “China’s foreign ministry reiterated on Tuesday that it had not heard of any recent telephone call between the United States and China on trade, and said it hopes Washington can stop its wrong actions and create conditions for talks.”
“Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang made the comment at a news briefing, after U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said there had been contact between the two sides but declined to say with whom.”
Politico: “It was typical Trump on display on the world stage, refusing to be boxed in by anyone on anything. The president’s meandering statements and conflicting remarks left aides and allies alike guessing at his intended course of action — and his critics reviving questions about his fitness for office.”
New York Times: “Mr. Trump spent the weekend in France insisting that he was not having a debate with his fellow world leaders, but at times it seemed like he was having a debate with himself. Day by day, even hour by hour, his approach to the trade war with China, the most consequential economic conflict on the planet, veered back and forth, leaving much of the world with geopolitical whiplash.”
Joe Walsh, a former Republican congressman who launched a primary challenge against President Trump, told MSNBC that he wasn’t a racist but had said “racist things.”
Said Walsh: “I wouldn’t call myself a racist, but I would say I’ve said racist things on Twitter. There’s no doubt about it. And an apology is not enough.”
A new Roanoke College poll find found that 53% of potential Virginia voters said they disapproved of President Trump’s job performance, while just 27% said they approved — a new low.
“The president has been a drag on Republicans in statewide elections since 2016. This year is especially significant because all 140 seats in the General Assembly are on the Nov. 5 ballot. Democrats hope to take control of the legislature, with Republicans defending razor-thin majorities of 20 to 19 in the Senate and 51 to 48 in the House of Delegates, with one vacancy in each chamber.”
“President Trump capped days of advocacy on behalf of Russian President Vladimir Putin by announcing here Monday that he intends to invite the leader to the Group of Seven summit in 2020, which Trump will host in an election year amid warnings that Russia is actively trying to interfere again in the U.S. presidential election,” the Washington Post reports.
“The effort would soften Russia’s pariah status and potentially bring it back into an elite club of some of the most powerful industrialized nations that lent Putin prized international legitimacy during the 14 years he attended.”
“He’s unqualified, he’s unfit, he’s a child, he’s reckless, he’s erratic, he’s a narcissist, he’s mean, he’s cruel, he lies every time he opens his mouth.”
— Former Rep. Joe Walsh (R), in an interview on Morning Joe, on why he’s challenging President Trump in a Republican presidential primary.
An internal poll from the campaign of Andy Beshear (D) shows the Democratic challenger leading Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin (R) by 9 percentage points in the race for governor, 48% to 39%, with a little over two months until the election, the Louisville Courier Journal reports.
The results closely resemble an internal poll conducted by the Democratic Attorneys General Association a week earlier, which found Beshear leading Bevin by the exact same margin.
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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