Washington Post: “The irony is that a candidate whose political identity has been built in part on her reputation as a policy wonk — a potential president who boasts of having a plan for nearly every challenge facing everyday Americans — has been tripped up by a policy issue that has dominated politics and defined her party for years.”
“In some ways, the health-care debate was uniquely suited to entangle Warren, who as a senator had never made the issue a central element of her worldview.”
Google and YouTube have removed more than 300 Trump campaign ads for violating the services’ policies, according to a 60 Minutes.
“I don’t trust anyone at all.”
— Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in an interview with Time.
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“President Trump announced tariffs, effective immediately, on all steel and aluminum shipped into the United States from Brazil and Argentina,” the Washington Post reports.
“The surprise announcement came after it appeared that the White House was preparing to dial back its adversarial trade approach in the months leading up to next year’s elections. The administration appeared close to a deal with House Democrats to revamp the North American Free Trade Agreement, and tensions with China had eased in recent weeks.”
“Impeachment is bringing out President Trump’s instincts as marketer in chief, as he seeks to turn a perilous, shame-inducing inquiry into an aggressive fundraising and mobilization tool,” Axios reports.
“Democrats competing for the chance to challenge Trump in the general election are getting a preview of how he may seek to upend and monetize their arguments against him.”
“From merchandise to rally rhetoric to paid media strategy, a campaign official tells Axios that a lot of the ideas for responses are being generated by Trump himself.”
A senior House GOP aide told Axios to look for Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, to engage Chairman Jerry Nadler with “a bunch of procedural maneuvers.”
Collins prides himself on mastery of process and rules, and he will rely heavily on Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio and John Ratcliffe of Texas to engage on substance.
Playbook: “We’ve covered a lot of December legislative nightmares. This one might be the worst. Not only are there a ton of issues, but there are also a ton of explosive and contentious issues on a collision course. The White House is under siege, and the Democratic majority is trying to do backflips on a tightrope. Time is a precious commodity, as is political capital, and everyone is going to try to maximize both.”
“It’s folly at this point to predict what might happen, because no one has any clue.”
Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, who pitched himself to Democratic voters as a campaign finance reformer who could win in red states, is ending his bid for the party’s presidential nomination, the Washington Post reports.
Said Bullock: “While there were many obstacles we could not have anticipated when entering this race, it has become clear that in this moment, I won’t be able to break through to the top tier of this still-crowded field.”
He again said he would not run for U.S. Senate in Montana.
Wall Street Journal: “President Trump heads to a meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization this week, seeking to showcase his work on the world stage as the impeachment inquiry continues at home.”
“Mr. Trump, who as a candidate labeled the alliance obsolete, has upended past gatherings with his complaints that members must spend more on defense. But his White House struck a more conciliatory tone ahead of the Dec. 3-4 meeting to mark NATO’s 70th anniversary, taking credit for increased military spending by member countries and declaring that the ‘trans-Atlantic relationship is in a very, very healthy place.’”
London Playbook: “The U.S. president represents the sort of random factor you frankly do not want in play when you have a soft-ish but healthy lead in the polls and just want everything to carry on as it is in the runup to polling day. The weekend papers were full of stories that the PM will be keeping his distance as much as possible, but in the end there will be no restraining Trump if he decides to stick his oar into U.K. politics this week.”
Bloomberg: “China vowed to sanction some American rights organizations and halt warship visits to Hong Kong in response to President Donald Trump’s decision to sign legislation supporting the city’s protesters.”
New York Times: “Jay Sekulow is a real lawyer, and he plays one on TV. Mr. Sekulow, the coordinator of President Trump’s personal legal team, does not have an office in the White House. He is best known as a prodigious fund-raiser on evangelical television and a litigator for the Christian right, not for handling criminal prosecutions or executive power disputes. In 2016, Mr. Sekulow said he voted for Hillary Clinton, according to people close to him.”
“Yet with the House Judiciary Committee set to begin impeachment hearings on Wednesday and Mr. Trump enmeshed in legal battles on other fronts — like his tax returns, claims of immunity from prosecution and elements of his immigration and health care policies — Mr. Sekulow has emerged as one of Mr. Trump’s most trusted advisers and loyal defenders in the news media.”
Associated Press: “Democrats are narrowing President Donald Trump’s early spending advantage, with two billionaire White House hopefuls joining established party groups to target the president in key battleground states that are likely to determine the outcome of next year’s election.”
“Priorities USA and American Bridge, two of the leading Democratic outside groups, are ramping up operations. The organization ACRONYM recently pledged to spend $75 million. And former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has pledged to spend $100 million on ads targeting Trump, while California billionaire Tom Steyer promised $50 million.”
“The billionaires have come under fire from some Democratic rivals for trying to buy the presidency. But the influx of cash is soothing anxiety in some corners of the party that Trump, who has repeatedly broken fundraising records, was off to an unprecedented early start in the 2020 advertising wars. Some had argued that the Democrats’ overwhelming focus on the sprawling presidential primary field allowed the president to burnish a reelection narrative unchallenged ahead of what is expected to be an exceptionally close election.”
Molly Jong-Fast: “It’s not often that you interview a subject who has no interest in being famous. But recently, I did just that when I sat down with Lisa Page the week before Thanksgiving in my hotel room in Washington. Page, of course, is the former FBI lawyer whose text-message exchanges with agent Peter Strzok that belittled Donald Trump and expressed fear at his possible victory became international news. They were hijacked by Trump to fuel his ‘deep-state’ conspiracy.”
“For the nearly two years since her name first made the papers, she’s been publicly silent (she did have a closed-door interview with House members in July 2018). I asked her why she was willing to talk now. ‘Honestly, his demeaning fake orgasm was really the straw that broke the camel’s back,’ she says. The president called out her name as he acted out an orgasm in front of thousands of people at a Minneapolis rally on Oct. 11, 2019.”
The White House announced that it will not participate in the House Judiciary Committee’s impeachment hearing on Wednesday — but left open the prospect of participating in future hearings, Politico reports.
Jonathan Swan: “This week’s NATO meeting in London will be “a celebratory leaders’ meeting,” according to a White House talking point ahead of President Trump’s trip. But European officials aren’t betting on it, and Trump has been privately complaining about France’s President Emmanuel Macron.”
“Three senior administration officials told me Trump has been deeply annoyed by Macron, who recently told The Economist that ‘what we are currently experiencing is the brain death of NATO’ and that the United States under Trump’s leadership appears to be ‘turning its back on us.'”
Said one official: “He’s been down on Macron for a long while.”
Joe Sestak announced that he is dropping out of the 2020 presidential race, leaving the total number of Democrats left in the field at 17, Axios reports.
“President Trump has vowed to lower the cost of prescription drugs. A Senate committee has approved a bipartisan bill to do just that. And the plan is going nowhere fast,” Politico reports.
“With Democrats in control of the House, the GOP-controlled Senate has shifted virtually its entire focus to confirming Trump’s judicial nominees where bipartisan votes aren’t needed. And heading into an election year, McConnell is loath to bring up issues that divide his caucus or risk alienating powerful industry groups. Legislative activity will only decline further if and when the Senate holds an impeachment trial that will further polarize the Capitol.”
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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