“Vice President JD Vance said on Thursday before leaving Israel that he was ‘insulted’ by the Knesset vote on annexing the occupied West Bank, which took place while he was visiting the country this week,” Axios reports.
“Netanyahu has control over the majority in the Knesset and could have stopped the vote by taking it off the agenda or ordering the members of his party to vote against it. He chose not to in order to avoid a confrontation with his ultranationalist coalition partners.”
A new University of New Hampshire poll in Maine finds Graham Platner (D) leads Gov. Janet Mills (D) in the Democratic race for the U.S. Senate nomination, 58% to 24%.
Platner’s lead is fueled by self-described socialists and progressives along with young people.
Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball: “Republicans have a couple of open-seat Senate targets in Kamala Harris-won New Hampshire and Minnesota.”
“History suggests Democrats should be able to hold both races, but Minnesota has clearly become a less attractive target for Republicans than New Hampshire.”
“I have no respect for Speaker Johnson not calling us back to Washington because we should be passing bills.”
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), on the Tucker Carlson Show.
Former Rep. George Santos (R-NY), fresh out of prison on a pardon, told New York Magazine he plans to name any future kids Donald and Marjorie.
Maine U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner (D), who has already apologized for earlier misogynistic and racially insensitive remarks and said he did not realize that a tattoo on his chest resembled a Nazi SS emblem, is again under scrutiny, this time for anti-LGBTQ+ comments, the Advocate reports.
Platner confirmed that he authored a series of Reddit comments that include homophobic slurs, anti-LGBTQ+ jokes, and sexually explicit stories denigrating gay men.
Said Platner: “It’s indefensible.”
Wall Street Journal: “The group is freshly equipped after raiding arms depots late last year after rebels took Damascus and the regime’s army and its Iranian allies fled. It isn’t able to hold territory, but it is contributing to a sense of lawlessness that’s adding to the stress on the new state.”
A new CBS News poll finds California voters overwhelmingly support mid-cycle redistricting, 62% to 38%.
Associated Press: “Less than two weeks from Election Day, the fight over new California U.S. House maps that could erase up to five Republican seats is starting to look like a lopsided match-up, with opponents running low on campaign ads and options.”
With no end to the government shutdown in sight, Senate Republicans will try a new tactic today, teeing up a vote on Sen. Ron Johnson’s (R-WI) bill to pay active-duty military members and federal employees required to work during the shutdown, Politico reports.
Meanwhile, the Washington Examiner reports Sen. John Thune (R-SD) is also readying possible votes next week on paying air traffic controllers and the military.
Semafor: “Thune said talks with Democrats are quiet after he broached guaranteeing them a vote to extend expiring health care subsidies after the shutdown ends.”
“In their most recent backchannel conversations, rank-and-file Democrats asked for a vote to extend the subsidies at a 50-vote threshold rather than at 60, making passage much more likely. Thune said his conference would not accept that, and that Trump is ‘sincerely’ willing to meet with Democrats about health care once the government opens up.”
A new YouGov poll finds 50% of Americans disapprove of President Trump’s demolition of the East Wing of the White House, while just 33% approve.
For members: Trump’s Wrecking Ball Presidency
Coming next month: The Greatest Sentence Ever Written by Walter Isaacson.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Drafted by Thomas Jefferson and edited by Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, this line lays the foundation for the American Dream and defines the common ground we share as a nation.
“As the world’s attention turns to a looming showdown between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping in South Korea, across the demarcation line, Kim Jong Un is floating the idea of a meeting with the US leader in his own way,” Bloomberg reports.
“As the walls come down on the part of the White House that’s been synonymous with American first ladies for decades, Melania Trump has remained silent,” CNN reports.
“The first lady has not publicly spoken about the demolition of the East Wing, which has served as the headquarters for presidential spouses since the Carter administration, even though its destruction has now upended her team’s office space and forced the halt of White House tours for the general public.”
CNBC: “Why let a $10 billion lawsuit get in the way of old friends having some chicken and gravy for dinner?”
“President Donald Trump last week dined at the White House with Rupert Murdoch and that media baron’s key lieutenants, despite Trump’s ongoing defamation lawsuit over Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal reporting that he sent a ‘bawdy’ 50th birthday letter to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.”
“There was a stony silence from Moscow a day after President Donald Trump criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin and slapped punishing sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies,” CNBC reports.
“Trump’s comments on Putin were notably widely absent from pro-Kremlin state media outlets such as TASS, Radio Sputnik and RIA Novosti’s news coverage on Thursday, with barely a mention of the criticism or canceled meeting.”
“The Trump administration on Wednesday dispatched more than 100 federal agents, including from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, to a U.S. Coast Guard base in the East Bay, marking the beginning of a long-threatened immigration crackdown on the region,” the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
“The Coast Guard and a source familiar with the operation confirmed the surge of federal agents, who are expected to begin arriving Thursday. The decision was seen as a likely precursor to President Donald Trump deploying National Guard troops to San Francisco, mirroring similar immigration operations in other cities around the nation.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) believes that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) would make a formidable presidential candidate in 2028, Axios reports.
“Ocasio-Cortez is positioning herself for a political leap in 2028, whether for president or challenging Chuck Schumer in a Democratic Senate primary.”
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.