Former Gov. Chris Christie (R) hit back at Donald Trump in an interview with Axios.
Said Christie: “I’m not gonna get into a back-and-forth with Donald Trump. But what I will say is this: When I ran for reelection in 2013, I got 60% of the vote. When he ran for reelection, he lost to Joe Biden.”
Punchbowl News: “The Biden administration is interested in finding a spot somewhere for Terry McAuliffe… All Cabinet spots are full, for now. And McAuliffe isn’t asking for a job; this seems to be the administration trying to find a place where McAuliffe can serve.”
“McAuliffe, a former governor who just lost a chance for a second term last week, has been in Democratic Party politics for dozens of years, so he has lots of friends in the Biden administration. This would be quite a good landing spot after losing the gubernatorial race. Talks have not yet started at all, but the administration is keen on finding a place for him, multiple sources tell us.”
“Conservative furor over what is taught in public schools reached a fever pitch in Texas on Wednesday, as Republican Gov. Greg Abbott announced a criminal probe into what he called ‘pornography’ in school libraries, his third directive on the matter this month,” the AP reports.
“Abbott released two previous letters this month decrying the availability of ‘pornography’ in school libraries.”
“A federal judge on Wednesday night rejected the latest attempt by former President Donald Trump to block the release of documents from his administration surrounding the events of Jan. 6,” NBC News reports.
“Trump’s lawyers have promised to appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which could send to the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.”
New York Times: “The package is already popular, with a solid majority of voters saying they support its funding increases for rail, roads, ports, water systems, broadband and the power grid. But the president and his allies are under no illusion about what they are really selling — Mr. Biden himself, and his theory-of-the-case for American politics, that delivering on concrete campaign promises is the only way to transcend the rage and culture-war messaging of Trump-era politics.”
“Yet the challenges facing Mr. Biden — who, as President Barack Obama’s vice president a decade ago, had some success serving as a traveling salesman for the stimulus and health care bills — are formidable.”
Jon Karl shares the memo, never before made public, that Johnnie McEntee’s Presidential Personnel Office wrote making the case for firing Secretary of Defense Mark Esper.
Among Esper’s perceived sins were that he “vowed to be apolitical” in running the Pentagon.
Take the Pew Research quiz and leave your result in the comments.
President Joe Biden will sign a bipartisan infrastructure bill on Monday at a ceremony that will include members of Congress who helped write the legislation, Reuters reports.
“A simmering feud within the Republican Party of Louisiana leadership boiled over Tuesday when party Secretary Mike Bayham accused Chairman Louis Gurvich of trying to manipulate the next intra-party election to remain in power,” the Lafayette Daily Advertiser reports.
“The Justice Department on Wednesday accused three political operatives of running a scheme to mislead donors and enrich themselves, charging the men with defrauding people of $3.5 million in 2016 and 2017,” the New York Times reports.
“It was the latest indictment against operatives who raise money for what are known as scam PACs, which direct much of the proceeds back to the people who run them.”
“Political leaders in D.C. successfully scrambled on Tuesday to prevent one of their own — a D.C. elected official who holds his position while incarcerated in the city’s jail — from being transferred to a federal prison more than 100 miles outside the District,” the Washington Post reports.
Said Joel Castón: “It really puts me at a complete disadvantage to be able to carry out my job as an elected official, to advocate on behalf of my constituents here, if I am not at my post.”
Jahmal Cole (D), who is running for Congress in Illinois, “was shot at during a lunch-hour incident” on Tuesday, Block Club Chicago reports.
Cole said it was “actually the second time he’s been shot at in recent months — and the first incident left him wounded.”
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) told the Arizona Republic that “bickering among each other” was the cause of Democrats not doing well during the off-year elections.
Said Sinema: “They just want you to work together and get stuff done… Voters are looking for people who just want to solve problems and get things done and are talking about how to do it in a very practical and pragmatic way that is within the circle of what’s normal.”
And she dismissed a question about a potential primary challenge: “I’m not thinking about 2024. What I am thinking about is the work that I’m doing for Arizona right now.”
Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) told Axios that a disadvantage of having fewer U.S. military veterans in Congress is having less checks on the Department of Defense.
Said Gallego: “It’s to the detriment to the men and women in the military. I mean, this is how you end up in 20-year wars because there were just not enough people that were willing to say to some of these generals that you see on TV all the time, you’re wrong. It’s time to leave.”
Nathan Gonzales: “A look back at political analysis over the last couple of decades shows that, even a year out from the election, it’s possible to accurately identify the direction of an election cycle, even if the magnitude or specifics are unclear.”
“That’s great news for Republicans, who are looking at anything from a good to a great 2022 considering the positive historical trend of midterm elections for the party out of the White House and the current political environment. And it’s bad news for Democrats hoping for a dramatic rebound next year.”
Edward Durr (R), the long-shot candidate who defeated New Jersey Senate President Steve Sweeney (D), apparently has “a history of posting bigoted, misogynistic and derogatory comments on social media,” the Washington Post reports.
“Yet none of it rated news coverage, even after Durr, a commercial truck driver who had never held office, became the Republican nominee for New Jersey’s third legislative district in April. According to a search of the Nexis database, which catalogues thousands of news sources, there were no published or broadcast reports about Durr’s posts in the six months leading up to Election Day.”
“The Spotsylvania County School Board has directed staff to begin removing books that contain ‘sexually explicit’ material from library shelves,” the Fredricksburg Free Lance-Star reports.
Said one school board member: “I think we should throw those books in a fire.”
Another added that he wants to “see the books before we burn them so we can identify within our community that we are eradicating this bad stuff.”
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.