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Another Example of Giuliani Shadow Diplomacy

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Washington Post: “On one end of the line was Venezuela’s socialist president, the pariah leader of a disintegrating economy whom President Trump’s administration was seeking to isolate.”

“On the other end: the U.S. president’s personal attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani and then-Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Tex.).”

“Both were part of a shadow diplomatic effort, backed in part by private interests, aimed at engineering a negotiated exit to ease President Nicolás Maduro from power and reopen resource-rich Venezuela to business, according to people familiar with the endeavor.”

GOP Senator Says Trump Is No Role Model

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Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) criticized President Trump for his tweets and language, saying he doesn’t believe the president is someone who young people can look up to, CBS News reports.

Said Langford: “I don’t think that President Trump as a person is a role model for a lot of different youth. That’s just me personally.”

He added: “I don’t like the way that he tweets, some of the things that he says, his word choices at times are not my word choices. He comes across with more New York City swagger than I do from the Midwest and definitely not the way that I’m raising my kids.”


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Quote of the Day

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“You don’t go through the first part in the House and then just tee this up for a Senate process where the guy that is going to be in charge of orchestrating the entire Senate trial has said that the whole thing is already baked and cooked and there’s nothing anybody can do about it. You don’t go and do that. That makes a mockery of the entire system.”

— Rep. Joe Kennedy III (D-MA), on CNN.

Late Primary Won’t Dim Florida’s Importance

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“Florida Democrats are used to being wooed by presidential candidates hungry for endorsements and local fundraising early in primary season. This year, the love is late in coming,” Politico reports.

“The state and its 219 party delegates have long enjoyed a front-row seat to electoral brawls. The 2020 election calendar, however, has dimmed the spotlight on the state’s celebrity after the Legislature, under pressure from national leaders of both parties, adopted a March 17 primary. By the time that date rolls around, 25 states and four U.S. territories already will have voted and nearly half the Democratic Party’s 4,051 delegates will be spoken for.”

Trump Relying on Pat Cipollone on Impeachment

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Wall Street Journal: “Though Mr. Trump has solicited advice elsewhere, resulting in a competing bids for influence by aides, the president has chiefly relied on Mr. Cipollone for impeachment strategy, officials say. He has been a near-constant presence in Mr. Trump’s office in recent weeks.”

“The two have developed a close bond and sometimes converse with a shorthand born of their familiarity.”

Said one official: “They are stapled to each other’s side.”

The Most Consequential Politician of the Decade

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The Week: “We Americans tend to remember historical eras through the lens of the presidency. But McConnell, more than most Senate leaders, served as a gatekeeper for what the presidents of his era have been able to accomplish — and he might be the most powerful and significant senator since Lyndon Johnson in the 1950s, and this was true despite the fact that he and his party shifted back and forth throughout the decade between opposition and majority status.”

Trump’s War on Science

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“In just three years, the Trump administration has diminished the role of science in federal policymaking while halting or disrupting research projects nationwide, marking a transformation of the federal government whose effects, experts say, could reverberate for years,” the New York Times reports.

“Political appointees have shut down government studies, reduced the influence of scientists over regulatory decisions and in some cases pressured researchers not to speak publicly. The administration has particularly challenged scientific findings related to the environment and public health opposed by industries such as oil drilling and coal mining. It has also impeded research around human-caused climate change, which President Trump has dismissed despite a global scientific consensus.”

‘Nothing Less Than a Civil War’

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New York Times: “As Mr. Trump’s bid for re-election shifts into higher gear, his campaign hopes to recapture voters who drifted away from the party in 2018 and 2019: independents who embraced moderate Democratic candidates, suburban women tired of Mr. Trump’s personal conduct and working-class voters who haven’t benefited from his economic policies.”

“But if any group remains singularly loyal to Mr. Trump, it is the small but impassioned number of white voters on the far right, often in rural communities like Golden Valley, who extol him as a cultural champion reclaiming the country from undeserving outsiders.”

“These voters don’t passively tolerate Mr. Trump’s ‘build a wall’ message or his ban on travel from predominantly Muslim countries — they’re what motivates them. They see themselves in his fear-based identity politics, bolstered by conspiratorial rhetoric about caravans of immigrants and Democratic ‘coups.'”

Trump Tells California and New York to Ask Him for Help

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President Trump slammed New York and California over homelessness, saying the states’ governors should call him if they “can’t handle” the issue. 

Said Trump: “California and New York must do something about their tremendous homeless problems. They are setting records!”

He added: “If their Governors can’t handle the situation, which they should be able to do very easily, they must call and ‘politely’ ask for help. Would be so easy with competence!”

Ivanka Trump Suggests She’ll Leave White House

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Ivanka Trump has cast doubt in a CBS News interview about continuing in her advisory role in the administration if her father wins re-election next year.

Said Trump: “I am driven, first and foremost, by my kids and their happiness, so that is always going to be my top priority and my decisions will always be flexible enough to ensure that their needs are being considered. They will really drive that answer for me.”

Impeachment Supercharges Battle for Senate

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Politico: “The battle for the Senate majority in 2020 was always going to be heated. And now here comes impeachment. The Senate’s impeachment trial of President Donald Trump is still stuck in limbo, but the looming verdict represents the most consequential vote senators will take before next year’s elections — and a weighty position for challengers seeking to join the chamber.”

“Impeachment also threatens to yoke the 35 separate races for Senate seats even closer to the presidential contest. The politics around impeachment have calcified for both parties, with public opinion rigidly consistent and senators and candidates mostly falling along party lines ahead of a prospective vote to acquit Trump or remove him from office.”

“Democrats — who need to net three seats in next year’s elections to win back control of the chamber if they also win the presidency — have attempted to squeeze vulnerable GOP senators, calling for a fair trial to include administration witnesses who refused to testify before the House and criticizing Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for saying he did not consider himself an impartial juror.”

About Political Wire

goddard-bw-snapshotTaegan 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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