“Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear will make the Democratic pilgrimage to South Carolina today, with stops scheduled across the first presidential primary state,” Semafor reports.
“Beshear, whose national star soared after he won reelection in 2023, will hold three separate meet-and-greets.”
“Thom Tillis isn’t in rebellion mode against President Donald Trump or Republican leadership. He’s simply making clear that he won’t tolerate disrespect from Trump — or anyone else,” Semafor reports.
Said Tillis: “I’ve tried to defer to him and show him respect, but I do have a habit of mirroring the behavior that I’m presented with.”
Zohran Mamdani plans to clarify his stance on the use of the phrase “globalize the intifada” as soon as this week as he consolidates support in his bid to be New York City mayor, Politico reports.
Brian Stelter: “Here’s the thing about conspiracy theories. People liken them to fires — you’ll hear folks saying that MAGA media is ‘fanning the flames’ of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal — but that’s not quite right. Fires can be extinguished. Conspiracy theories are more like nuclear fallout. You can try to decontaminate the area, try to minimize exposure, but the radioactivity lingers for decades. It doesn’t go away.”
“And so it goes with the Epstein obsession among Trump’s media allies. While Fox News has taken his plea seriously to stop talking about the dead sex offender, many other MAGA media sources are pressing on, recognizing that the audiences they’ve built on conspiratorial thinking are simply demanding more, more, more.”
“The U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, arrived on Wednesday at the district court in Tel Aviv to attend Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption trial,” Axios reports.
“Huckabee’s attendance at the court hearing is a significantly unusual and unprecedented move by a U.S. ambassador to Israel.”
“Hunter Biden, in his first interview since the 2024 election, denied there was a ‘grand conspiracy’ to cover up issues with his father’s health and said Democrats only lost the race because they abandoned President Joe Biden,” the Washington Post reports.
Said Biden: “We lost the last election because we did not remain loyal to the leader of the party. That’s my position. We had the advantage of incumbency, we had the advantage of an incredibly successful administration, and the Democratic Party literally melted down.”
“Kevin Hassett, one of President Donald Trump’s longest-serving economic aides, is the early frontrunner to replace Jerome Powell as Federal Reserve chief next year,” Bloomberg reports.
“Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, and Kevin Warsh are the top two contenders in an Apprentice-like contest run by Trump out of the White House. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is advising on selection — but could get the job himself if others fail to impress — while Fed governor Christopher Waller remains the dark horse.”
Paul Krugman: “Yesterday’s CPI report looked fairly tame on the surface, but if you look at the details it showed clear signs that Trump’s tariffs are starting to drive up prices.”
“And private surveys suggest that there’s a lot more inflation in the pipeline. For example, look at S&P Global’s Purchasing Managers’ Index for manufacturing, which shows the percentage of firms reporting higher prices. A higher number almost always points to higher official inflation ahead, and right now it’s definitely telling us that tariffs are about to hit hard.”
“The Jeffrey Epstein conspiracy saga is blowing up in the White House’s face — and social-media experts say that Elon Musk’s remake of X helped light the fuse,” Politico reports.
“It was Musk himself who wrenched the Epstein affair back into public consciousness during his first open spat with Trump in June… But Musk bears a deeper responsibility for the mess as well, say experts in online speech — and for whatever damage it inflicts on Trump’s coalition. A huge amount of the infighting has unfurled on X.”
“The Trump administration and its allies have launched a multipronged effort to gather data on voters and inspect voting equipment, sparking concern among local and state election officials about federal interference ahead of the 2026 midterms,” the Washington Post reports.
“The most unusual activity is happening in Colorado — a state that then-candidate Donald Trump lost by 11 points — where a well-connected consultant who says he is working with the White House is asking county clerks whether they will allow the federal government or a third party to physically examine their election equipment. Federal agencies have long offered technical assistance and cybersecurity advice to election officials but have not examined their equipment because election laws tightly limit who has access.”
“Separately, the Justice Department has taken the unusual step of asking at least nine states for copies of their voter rolls, and at least two have turned them over.”
“Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s super PAC co-hosted an organizing call for supporters and influencers last week, stirring speculation that he’s positioning for a run at the White House in 2028,” Axios reports.
“A chaotic rollout of tariffs is starting to filter through to price tags on store shelves. An immigration crackdown is beginning to weigh on jobs growth, measured by federal surveys. Taken together, the impact of President Trump’s whirlwind six months back in office is showing up in the economy,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The effect isn’t yet enough to derail the economy, which by many measures has weathered Trump’s trade wars much better than many on Wall Street and in Washington feared. Economists see less risk of a recession now than three months ago, a Wall Street Journal survey found.”
“Yet a long stretch when Trump’s policies left little imprint on the hard data appears to be ending.”
“In clearing the way for President Trump’s efforts to transform American government, the Supreme Court has issued a series of orders that often lacked a fundamental characteristic of most judicial work: an explanation of the court’s rationale,” the New York Times reports.
“On Monday, for instance, in letting Mr. Trump dismantle the Education Department, the majority’s unsigned order was a single four-sentence paragraph entirely devoted to the procedural mechanics of pausing a lower court’s ruling.”
“What the order did not include was any explanation of why the court had ruled as it did. It was an exercise of power, not reason.”
President Donald Trump accused Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) of mortgage fraud Tuesday, and a senior administration official said that a criminal case had been referred to the Justice Department, in a sharp escalation of the White House’s attacks on vocal Trump critics, the Washington Post reports.
Trump claimed, without providing specifics, that Schiff had misstated which home he used as a primary residence, helping him secure a cheaper mortgage.
Said Trump: “I would love to see him brought to justice.”
However, the Los Angeles Times reports a memo from Fannie Mae investigators to the Trump-appointed director of the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency “does not accuse Schiff of mortgage fraud.”
“Senator Josh Hawley introduced legislation on Tuesday that aims to roll back some of the major changes to Medicaid made in Republicans’ sweeping policy bill, legislation that the Missouri Republican voted to pass just two weeks ago,” the New York Times reports.
“I don’t understand what the interest or what the fascination is.”
— President Trump, quoted by the New York Post, about Jeffrey Epstein.
“Democrats are stoking the online flames of the Jeffrey Epstein controversy. Internal memos and polling suggest the issue is breaking through to voters,” Politico reports.
“Interviews with a dozen Democratic elected officials, strategists and aides cast the controversy as helpful not only in dividing Trump’s base but also illustrating the president’s flip-flopping tendencies, even on his core campaign issues. Democrats argued they can tie the episode into a larger narrative about Trump’s other broken campaign promises.”
“Internal Democratic polling found that 70 percent of voters said law enforcement is withholding information about powerful people connected to Epstein, including 61 percent of Trump voters.”
Axios: “The fallout over the Epstein case continues to haunt Trump’s team, 10 days after DOJ’s about-face announcement that it wouldn’t disclose any more details about Epstein, that he had no client list, and that he’d killed himself in prison and wasn’t murdered.”
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.