“It’s almost embarrassing being an American citizen… and listening to the stupid shit we have to deal with in this country.”
— J.P. Morgan CEO Jaime Dimon, quoted by CNBC.
“It’s almost embarrassing being an American citizen… and listening to the stupid shit we have to deal with in this country.”
— J.P. Morgan CEO Jaime Dimon, quoted by CNBC.
“France is America’s first and oldest ally. A lot of people don’t know that.”
— President Trump, quoted by the Boston Globe.
“President Donald Trump’s saga of awkward handshakes continues,” CNN reports.
“On Friday, right before he left France, Trump said goodbye to France’s President Emmanuel Macron, with the two grabbing and holding hands for a long, long handshake. The entire handshake lasted about 25 seconds.”
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Washington Post: “The president has treated health care and a host of other legislative agenda items, from taxes to infrastructure, as issues to be hammered out by lawmakers with often-scant direction from the executive branch — and with decidedly mixed signals from Trump himself.”
“Trump’s sporadic salesmanship on the bills and ambitions lingering on Capitol Hill has become a defining characteristic of the complicated relationship between the president and congressional Republicans. Although Trump routinely proclaims his desire for political victories, he has yet to make a full-throated case to the country about legislation that Congress is pursuing and has spent a modest amount of time attempting to twist arms in the House or Senate.”
Washington Post: “Most White House aides are trying to protect the principal: the president and, really, the presidency itself. But Trump himself seems focused primarily on protecting his personal interests, which includes his family.”
James Hohmann: “Trump’s embrace of a kind of nepotism that’s historically been more common in banana republics than the first world continues to backfire on him — creating a myriad legal and political headaches. And they’re probably only going to get worse.”
For members: Russia Investigation Is Now Dividing the Trump Family
A new Kaiser Health Tracking Poll finds that 61% of Americans continue to hold unfavorable views of the Republican plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, including 44% who say they have “very unfavorable” view.
“The Russian lawyer who met with the Trump team after a promise of compromising material on Hillary Clinton was accompanied by a Russian-American lobbyist — a former Soviet counter intelligence officer who is suspected by some U.S. officials of having ongoing ties to Russian intelligence,” NBC News has learned.
“The presence at the meeting of a Russian-American with suspected intelligence ties is likely to be of interest to special counsel Robert Mueller and the House and Senate panels investigating the Russian election interference campaign.”
Associated Press: “Russian-American lobbyist says he attended a June 2016 meeting with President Donald Trump’s son that was billed as part of a Russian government effort to help the Republican campaign. Rinat Akhmetshin confirmed his participation Friday.”
David Nather: “It’s Marco Rubio. He went on a mini-tweetstorm on Wednesday night, saying he needed things like more hospital money for Florida and the ability to waive Medicaid spending limits if there’s another outbreak like the Zika virus. Yesterday, he told reporters he got some of what he needed, but he claimed he was still undecided on the bill.”
“Rubio is not going to be the vote that kills Affordable Care Act repeal. But if you’re a senator who wants maximum attention for your priorities, now’s the time to get it.”
Politico: “Senate Republican leaders are praying that their fragile whip count holds over the weekend, as just one more ‘no’ vote would doom the party’s Obamacare repeal effort from even coming up for debate. Two GOP senators, Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky, said Thursday afternoon they will oppose a procedural vote next week to bring the bill to the floor.”
“GOP leaders are putting immense pressure on about half a dozen other Republican senators not to join them and topple the entire effort. Another ‘no’ is enough to kill the bill, and would also likely lead to mass defections.”
Axios: “If the Senate’s health care bill dies, moderate Republicans will likely be the ones who kill it. And the changes released yesterday won’t do much to allay their biggest concerns.”
Playbook: “The procedural vote to allow debate on the GOP health care is the real game. In other words: if Republicans are able to begin debate on the bill, most people think it will pass. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has been pressing Republicans to get on board and amend the package on the floor. If the bill reaches the floor, McConnell is expected to offer a manager’s amendment, which could change parts of the bill in one fell swoop.”
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said he did not mean to criticize the U.S. government but that, on a whole, “it’s largely not a highly disciplined organization.”
Said Tillerson: “Decision-making is fragmented, and sometimes people don’t want to take decisions. Coordination is difficult through the interagency process.”
“Senate Republicans may not use the CBO to score a version of Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) controversial amendment that was included in the updated Senate healthcare bill,” The Hill reports.
“Instead, a member of Senate GOP leadership said analysis from the Trump administration — including the Health and Human Services Department and the White House Office of Management and Budget — might be used instead of the nonpartisan CBO. That could provide a much more favorable analysis for the bill.”
Caitlin Owens: The massive Senate GOP shift on pre-existing conditions.
“Two former congressional staffers have been charged over the release of nude images and videos of a lawmaker,” the Daily Beast reports.
“The Justice Department did not name the House member, but reports suggest that both worked for Virgin Islands Del. Stacey Plaskett.”
“A Republican donor and operative from Chicago’s North Shore who said he had tried to obtain Hillary Clinton’s missing emails from Russian hackers killed himself in a Minnesota hotel room days after talking to The Wall Street Journal about his efforts,” the Chicago Tribune reports.
Jonathan Chait says it’s suspicious.
“Jared Kushner has been pressing other White House aides to more vigorously defend the meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a Kremlin-linked lawyer that Kushner also attended, but has faced resistance from some of Trump’s top press aides,” Politico reports.
“The disagreement over strategy illustrates the White House’s ongoing struggle to cope with a quickly evolving scandal that has engulfed Trump’s early presidency.”
“President Trump’s legal team was informed more than three weeks ago about the email chain showing that his son Donald Jr. met with a Kremlin-connected lawyer last June,” Yahoo News reports.
Trump has said that he learned just “a couple of days ago”… but the sources said that Marc Kasowitz, the president’s chief lawyer in the Russia investigation, and Alan Garten, chief legal officer of the Trump Organization, “were both informed about the emails in the third week of June, after they were discovered by lawyers for Kushner.”
Kid Rock has announced his bid for the U.S. Senate in Michigan, Fox News reports.
From a statement on his website: “Like politicians write books during their campaigns, I’m planning on putting out music during mine and it all starts tonight at midnight.”
He then responded to a tweet from Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI): “Senator Stabenow and I do share a love of music, although probably not the same kind. I concede she is better at playing politics than I am so I’ll keep doing what I do best, which is being a voice for tax paying, hardworking Americans and letting politicians like her know that We the People are sick and tired of their bullshit!”
New Yorker: Kid Rock’s Senate run is a terrifying new normal.
“I’m on you now. You are fucking with me now. Let’s see who you are. Watch your back, bitch.”
— Trump attorney Marc Kasowitz, quoted by ProPublica, threatening a stranger in a string of profanity-laden emails last night.
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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