Playbook: “Causing a far bigger ruckus than simple matters of war and peace is EscalatorGate — the White House-fueled conspiracy theory that supposed Trump-hating U.N. officials forced the president to walk up the stairs before his speech yesterday by sabotaging his escalator.”
“As evidence, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt highlighted a Times of London article from last weekend in which anonymous U.N. officials had joked about precisely such an act.”
“On one side is the minority party, using what little leverage it has — a looming government funding deadline — to push for priorities it can’t enact otherwise. On the other is the majority, insisting a short-term funding punt is no place for negotiation,” Politico reports.
“If that sounds familiar, that’s because just such a scenario has played out dozens of times on Capitol Hill over the past decade and a half — usually with Republicans pushing for policy concessions and Democrats insisting on a ‘clean’ stopgap.”
“Not this time. The roles have been reversed between the two parties as Congress barrels toward a government shutdown Oct. 1 with no obvious off-ramp in sight.”
“Chuck Schumer is losing support among a key constituency: The Democrats who want to join his caucus,” Politico reports.
“Schumer is running into a wall of resistance from a crop of largely insurgent Senate candidates in key races — from safe seats, to top targets, to reach states — as he hustles to recruit a slate of strong contenders to compete across an unfavorable map.”
“Politico surveyed major Democratic candidates across open Senate races and seats the party is aiming to flip. Of the 18 who responded, none endorsed Schumer for leader.”
Playbook: “Dems have been torn for weeks. They know — as we all do — the received wisdom: that the American public hates shutdowns and tends to blame whichever party failed to back a funding bill. And they know exactly how a shutdown is likely to play out. It’s hard to see Republicans buckling under pressure — meaning at some point, Dems would have to come back to the table, and likely with nothing to show for it.”
“But sometimes in politics, resistance is the point.”
“Think of it this way: Forcing a shutdown is the legislative equivalent of Sen. Cory Booker’s (D-N.J.) record-busting 25-hour filibuster earlier this year: futile, but also guaranteed to secure wall-to-wall media coverage, and to show Dem activists that at least some in the party are willing to use every tool at their disposal to fight back.”
“Jimmy Kimmel broke his silence on Tuesday night in an emotional return to ABC’s airwaves, by turns defiant, joking and somber as he addressed the controversy that temporarily sidelined his late-night show and set off a national debate over free speech,” the New York Times reports.
“His voice breaking at times, Mr. Kimmel said he understood why his comments last week about the suspected shooter of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk seemed ‘ill-timed, or unclear, or maybe both.’ He added, ‘It was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man.’”
“But Mr. Kimmel also had harsh words for President Trump and the government regulator who suggested that the Trump administration would punish ABC because of his remarks, saying that ‘a government threat to silence a comedian the president doesn’t like is anti-American.’”
Said Kimmel: “This show is not important. What’s important is that we get to live in a country that allows us to have a show like this.”
“FBI agents executing a search warrant at former national security adviser John Bolton’s downtown Washington office last month turned up documents marked as classified,” Politico reports.
Former Rep. Joe Walsh railed against the Democratic Party just three months after joining it.
Said Walsh: “I know I’ve only been a Democrat for 3 plus months, so if I’m overstepping my bounds here I apologize, but damn… the leadership of my new party just doesn’t fucking understand the threat and isn’t fucking meeting this moment.”
He added: “If you can’t relish fighting a fascist, then go home.”
CNN’s Jake Tapper claimed that the suspension of late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel was the “most direct infringement” on free speech by the “government” that he’s ever witnessed, Mediaite reports.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg notes Kimmel “took a conciliatory tone” in his return to TV Tuesday night, according to three people who attended the taping of his ABC show.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told Fox News he was “a little bit” surprised by President Donald Trump’s surprise announcement in full support of Ukraine on Tuesday.
Said Zelensky: “It was a surprise for me, you’re right. I was very positive signals from the sign that Trump and America will be with us to the end of the war. Yes. We will see, right? We will see, but God bless, it will be so.”
Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-WI) “became the third Republican to launch a 2026 campaign for governor, formally jumping into the race after long teasing a bid,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA), “who has long pushed for a new generation of leaders in his party, is seriously considering a challenge to Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) in the 2026 primary election,” the Boston Globe reports.
“If he does run, it would set up a potentially fierce battle between high-profile members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation as well as serve as a test nationally of the appetite among Democratic voters for generational change. Markey, 79, is seeking another six-year US Senate term and previously served for nearly four decades in the US House before moving to the upper chamber in 2013.”
“The Trump administration is seeking an equity stake of as much as 10% in Lithium Americas as it renegotiates terms of the company’s $2.26 billion Energy Department loan for its Thacker Pass lithium project with General Motors,” Reuters reports.
Less than 24 hours after President Trump explicitly told pregnant women not to take Tylenol, Dr. Mehmet Oz completely walked back that advice, Mediaite reports.
Said Oz: “So the message is not, ‘Never take Tylenol.’ It’s, ‘Take Tylenol judiciously.’ Take it by talking with your doctor.”
A new Washington Post-Ipsos poll finds 76% of Americans say President Trump doesn’t deserve to win the Nobel Peace Prize, compared with 22% who say he does.
Fellow Republicans are on the fence: 49% say yes, while 49% say no.
“President Trump on Tuesday suggested Ukraine can win back all the territory it has lost to Russia, in an extraordinary shift after earlier suggesting Kyiv would have to cede parts of the country to achieve a peace deal,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Said Trump, on social media: “After getting to know and fully understand the Ukraine/Russia Military and Economic situation and, after seeing the Economic trouble it is causing Russia, I think Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form.”
“One of the largest measles outbreaks in the U.S. is now centered in bordering areas of southwestern Utah and Arizona,” NBC News reports.
“In Southwest Utah, all but one of the 23 confirmed cases are among unvaccinated, school-age kids, the Southwest Utah Public Health Department reported. In Mohave County, Arizona, which health officials believe is connected to the Utah outbreak, there have been 42 confirmed cases of the highly contagious virus.”
“The trial of Ryan Wesley Routh came to a dramatic end Tuesday when he started stabbing himself in the neck with a pen after a Florida jury found him guilty of attempting to assassinate Donald Trump last year on a golf course,” NBC News reports.
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.
