Donald Trump said he doesn’t think Joe Biden will be the Democratic nominee, The Hill reports.
Said Trump: “He’s surrounded by a bunch of Marxists, a bunch of fascists, and they want to keep their jobs, and they want to destroy our country. But he has no clue, he doesn’t, if you look at him, he doesn’t know where he is.”
He continued: “You know that, I know that, everybody knows that. And I doubt he will even be running frankly, I just can’t even imagine it.”
“Republican officials are running into a wall of opposition — from the Secret Service and local officials — as they fight to move a protest zone farther away from the site of their national convention in Milwaukee this summer,” NBC News reports.
“For the first time this Congress, Speaker Mike Johnson has boxed in Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. And he did it on a topic that’s near to Schumer’s heart — Israel,” Punchbowl News reports.
“Johnson’s decision to publicly — and quite relentlessly — push for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to travel to Washington to address a joint meeting of Congress has put Schumer in an unusually uncomfortable position inside the Senate Democratic Caucus, where opinions of the Israeli leader have sunk to a new low.”
“The politics are easy for Johnson. His conference is in lock-step behind Netanyahu. And Johnson is using Israel as a political cudgel against Democrats.”
You're reading the free version of Political Wire
Upgrade to a paid membership to unlock full access. The process is quick and easy. You can even use Apple Pay.
New York Times: “The increase comes as President Biden signed legislation that would force a sale of TikTok by its Chinese owner or would have it banned in the U.S. That law has triggered a backlash from young voters who backed Mr. Biden overwhelmingly in 2020, some of whom are also opposing his administration’s support of Israel’s war in Gaza.”
“An internal analysis within TikTok found nearly twice as many pro-Trump posts as pro-Biden ones on the platform since November: 1.29 million pro-Trump posts versus 651,000 pro-Biden posts.”
“President Biden will designate Kenya on Thursday as a ‘major non-NATO ally,’ a move that reflects the president’s determination to deepen relations with the East African nation even as other countries — including Russia and China — are racing to do the same,” the New York Times reports.
CNN: Biden looks to counter China’s influence as he rolls out red carpet for Kenya.
“Having spent months assuaging Democratic fears about the election by pointing to their fundraising lead over Donald Trump, the Biden team reported this week that it had brought in less money in April than Trump’s campaign claimed to have raised alongside the RNC,” Politico reports.
“Privately, aides have two main explanations. The first is that there was a dearth of big donor events last month, which they are already planning to change in the weeks ahead. Some also point to a larger structural dynamic that could prove harder to fix: The grassroots fundraising machine that boosted them in 2020 isn’t yet humming.”
“Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his Bharatiya Janata Party has already won a majority of the seats contested in the parliamentary elections due to end next week, putting him in a position to return to office for a third term,” Bloomberg reports.
“The new leader of Taiwan barely had time to unpack his presidential office before China’s military surrounded the island on Thursday, in a large-scale show of force that risks locking the two sides in a fresh cycle of escalation,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Growing mistrust of Beijing helped propel Lai Ching-te to the presidency, which he assumed earlier this week. The latest maneuvers only reinforce Beijing’s commitment to using its military might to intimidate the island, even as doing so risks undermining its especially delicate ties to the U.S.”
“Since the first American shipments of sophisticated weapons to Ukraine, President Biden has never wavered on one prohibition: President Volodymyr Zelensky had to agree to never fire them into Russian territory, insisting that would violate Mr. Biden’s mandate to ‘avoid World War III,’” the New York Times reports.
“But the consensus around that policy is fraying. Propelled by the State Department, there is now a vigorous debate inside the administration over relaxing the ban to allow the Ukrainians to hit missile and artillery launch sites just over the border in Russia — targets that Mr. Zelensky says have enabled Moscow’s recent territorial gains.”
The Independent: With Ukraine losing ground, allies debate how to squeeze cash for Kyiv out of frozen Russian assets.
A key adviser to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is stepping away from his presidential campaign, citing an “increasingly hateful and divisive atmosphere” that “no longer aligns with my values,” the New York Times reports.
“Angela Stanton King, the campaign’s adviser for Black engagement, announced her departure in a statement on social media on Tuesday evening, five months after she was added to the campaign’s payroll.”
“A stage in northern Mexico where a presidential hopeful was campaigning for a local candidate collapsed after a gust of wind blew through on Wednesday night, leaving at least nine people dead and at least 60 others injured,” the New York Times reports.
“Ohio House leaders said Tuesday there will probably not be a legislative solution to getting President Joe Biden on the November ballot in Ohio,” the Columbus Dispatch reports.
“Current law says Ohio officials must certify the ballot on Aug. 7, 90 days before the election, but Biden won’t be nominated until the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 19.”
Donald Trump “is holding a rally on Thursday in South Bronx, a New York neighborhood that’s 64% Hispanic and 31% Black,” Axios reports.
“It’ll be a test of how much support (or curiosity) he will be able to gin up in a nonwhite, working-class community.”
“It will be his first large-scale campaign rally in New York since 2016.”
Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) “filed 11 amendments to his campaign finance reports Wednesday, acknowledging that his claims for the last two years to have loaned $320,000 to his campaign were not true,” WTVF reports.
“Ogles says that he actually loaned his campaign $20,000, instead of the $320,000 that he had previously claimed.”
“Plans to invite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress are being met with fierce pushback from Democrats,” Axios reports.
“Some top House Democrats are going so far as to say Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) should not sign onto the invitation.”
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.
“There are a lot of blogs and news sites claiming to understand politics, but only a few actually do. Political Wire is one of them.”
— Chuck Todd, host of “Meet the Press”
“Concise. Relevant. To the point. Political Wire is the first site I check when I’m looking for the latest political nugget. That pretty much says it all.”
— Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the Rothenberg Political Report
“Political Wire is one of only four or five sites that I check every day and sometimes several times a day, for the latest political news and developments.”
— Charlie Cook, editor of the Cook Political Report
“The big news, delicious tidbits, pearls of wisdom — nicely packaged, constantly updated… What political junkie could ask for more?”
— Larry Sabato, Center for Politics, University of Virginia
“Political Wire is a great, great site.”
— Joe Scarborough, host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”
“Taegan Goddard has a knack for digging out political gems that too often get passed over by the mainstream press, and for delivering the latest electoral developments in a sharp, no frills style that makes his Political Wire an addictive blog habit you don’t want to kick.”
— Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post
“Political Wire is one of the absolute must-read sites in the blogosphere.”
— Glenn Reynolds, founder of Instapundit
“I rely on Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire for straight, fair political news, he gets right to the point. It’s an eagerly anticipated part of my news reading.”
— Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist.