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Florida Surgeon General Defies Science Amid Outbreak

February 23, 2024 at 5:11 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“As a Florida elementary school tries to contain a growing measles outbreak, the state’s top health official is giving advice that runs counter to science and may leave unvaccinated children at risk of contracting one of the most contagious pathogens on Earth,“ the Washington Post reports.

“Florida surgeon general Joseph Ladapo failed to urge parents to vaccinate their children or keep unvaccinated students home from school as a precaution in a letter to parents at the Fort Lauderdale-area school this week following six confirmed measles cases.”

Biden’s Use of Cheat Sheets at Fundraisers Worry Donors

February 23, 2024 at 5:10 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“President Biden has been using notecards in closed-door fundraisers, calling on prescreened donors and then consulting his notes to provide detailed answers,“ Axios reports.

“Biden’s reliance on notecards to help explain his own policy positions — on questions he knows are coming — is raising concerns among some donors about Biden’s age.”

Quote of the Day

February 23, 2024 at 5:09 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“My grandfather always had hundreds of millions of dollars to prop him up. We know that when after my grandfather died, Donald sold the Empire lock stock and barrel at a loss of approximately $300 million… There’s nobody else left to hand Donald a blank check anymore, and that’s what keeps him up at night because he’s terrified of having the truth about him being known.”

— Mary Trump, talking to MSNBC about her uncle, Donald Trump.

Trump Campaign Trying to Get Away With Donor Loophole

February 23, 2024 at 5:06 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Daily Beast: “Campaign donor refunds have been a part of political finances since modern contribution limits were first instituted in 1972. But just over 50 years later, Donald Trump’s political operation seems to have found a novel workaround, with the campaign reporting just one individual refund—for $400—over the entirety of last year.”

“On paper, Trump’s refund rate is virtually impossible. His campaign has not solved this persistent problem of overpayments. His donors are, in fact, breaking the donation limits—dozens and dozens of them.”

Trump Moves to Dismiss Classified Documents Case

February 22, 2024 at 9:57 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Donald Trump on Thursday asked a federal judge to dismiss criminal charges accusing him of illegally holding onto sensitive U.S. national security documents when he left office, arguing the prosecution is legally flawed,” Reuters reports.

Court Battle Shows Effort to Undermine No Labels

February 22, 2024 at 9:13 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Political operatives opposed to No Labels’ potential 2024 presidential ticket took over the NoLabels.com domain last year and purchased Google search ads aimed at spreading the misleading claim that the group supported former president Donald Trump and other right-wing causes,” the Washington Post reports.

“Arizona political operative Charles Siler, who led the effort, described in a recorded deposition how he created a website that echoed the design, color scheme and language of No Labels’ actual website, NoLabels.org. But the mirror website was filled with pictures of politicians not embraced by No Labels, including Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA).”

Ex-FBI Informant Arrested Again

February 22, 2024 at 9:04 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Lawyers for Alexander Smirnov, the former FBI informant charged with feeding the bureau false corruption allegations against Joe Biden, say he’s been re-arrested just days after a magistrate judge in Las Vegas ordered him released from pretrial custody,” Politico reports.

Trump Avoids Precarious Maryland Senate Race

February 22, 2024 at 9:01 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“In a sign of how badly the GOP wants to flip Maryland’s Senate seat, former President Trump is expected to set aside his feud with the state’s likely GOP nominee,” Axios reports.

“Distancing himself from Trump could ultimately be crucial for former Gov. Larry Hogan in a solid blue state like Maryland, but Trump hasn’t taken well to perceived disloyalty in the past.”

An Interesting Bedtime Ritual

February 22, 2024 at 5:31 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Eric and Lara Trump apparently make their children say the Pledge of Allegiance before they go to bed each night.

Trump Loses Bid to Delay $355 Million Judgment

February 22, 2024 at 5:30 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The judge overseeing the $355 million civil fraud case has denied Donald Trump’s request to delay the judgment for a month,” CNN reports.

“Once the judgment is officially entered, it will start the 30-day clock for Trump to file an appeal. During that period, Trump will need to put up cash or post bond to cover the $355 million and roughly $100 million in interest he was ordered to pay the state.”

A Trump Judge Under Scrutiny

February 22, 2024 at 5:28 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“When Judge Aileen Cannon was handed the job last spring of overseeing Donald Trump’s prosecution on charges of mishandling classified documents, she was already under fire,” the New York Times reports.

“Many legal analysts as well as Trump critics assailed her for having issued a ruling in an early part of the inquiry that was favorable to him but so legally questionable that an appeals court chided her in overturning it.”

“Now Judge Cannon is facing a series of decisions that will further test her legal acumen and give an indication of how she views the case and its famous main defendant.”

The Democrat-Republican Suicide Pact

February 22, 2024 at 4:52 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Joe Klein: “In my book about the evils of political consulting, Politics Lost, I described one of the great descents in the history of negative advertising. The mad genius Pat Caddell was running Senator Alan Cranston’s 1986 re-election campaign in California. There was a problem: Focus groups showed that Californians didn’t like anything about Alan Cranston. Not a thing. Zilch. What to do? Cranston was running against a moderate Republican tech executive Ed Zschau. Little was known about the guy. He was a blank canvas and Caddell painted it black. All negative, all the time. Cranston the unloved won that race. And a slimy tactic was born.”

“We’ve seen many such races since. And we are likely to see another in 2024. Only this time the bar has been set even lower.”

Biden Met with Alexei Navalny’s Widow

February 22, 2024 at 4:08 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President Joe Biden met with the widow of Alexei Navalny, Yulia Navalnaya, and their daughter, Dasha, in California on Thursday, less than a week after her husband died in a Russian prison, NBC News reports.

Tommy Tuberville Doesn’t Know What He Thinks

February 22, 2024 at 4:05 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) said that he is “all for” the Alabama Supreme Court’s decision that frozen embryos are children, the HuffPost reports.

“He also said he opposes the effects of the ruling. And that he supports fertility treatments like IVF that are now being denied to women across his state as a result of the court’s ruling. And that he wants to read the legislation more closely before saying more — except there is no legislation.”

“The Alabama senator delivered this spectacular series of responses in the span of three minutes when asked for his reaction to the court’s unprecedented decision on Tuesday.”

Biden Ties Trump Tight to Alabama Ruling

February 22, 2024 at 4:04 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign is trying to pin the blame for the Alabama court ruling jeopardizing access to in vitro fertilization treatments squarely on Donald Trump,” Politico reports.

“Ahead of a speech Trump is scheduled to give Thursday evening to conservative Christian broadcasters in Nashville, the Biden campaign accused the former president of being responsible for current reproductive rights restrictions across the South and elsewhere.”

Biden ‘Dream Team’ Builds a War Chest

February 22, 2024 at 4:01 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“President Joe Biden’s $140 million campaign war chest has been bolstered by a group of loyal advisers and fundraisers that some party strategists call a ‘dream team’ effort to defeat the likely Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump,” CNBC reports.

“The recent boom in fundraising can be traced primarily to five people: media executive and Biden campaign co-chair Jeffrey Katzenberg, former State Department official Rufus Gifford, campaign finance director Michael Pratt, longtime Biden adviser Jen O’Malley Dillon and Julie Chávez Rodriguez, the president’s 2024 campaign manager.”

Biden Impeachment Inquiry Falls Apart

February 22, 2024 at 2:54 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“House Republicans reached a critical point this week in their bid to impeach Joe Biden: a closed-door interview with the President’s younger brother James. But the coveted testimony was dramatically overshadowed by another development: The Justice Department indicting one of the impeachment inquiry’s lead informants for lying to the FBI about the Biden family with dirt from Russian intelligence,” Time reports.

Said Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE): “My sense is it’s not going to happen. We should determine the next president through the election.”

Added Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY): “There’s no question this is dead. To the extent that they continue to push forward with it, they are now doing it with a knowing asset of Russian intelligence. It is one thing to lead an investigation where you fail to find evidence to support unfounded conclusions. It is altogether something else when you are acting as an agent of Vladimir Putin.”

Inside the GOP’s State Party Problem

February 22, 2024 at 2:38 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“State Republican parties in roughly half of the most important battleground states are awash in various degrees of dysfunction, debt and disarray,” the New York Times reports.

“With former President Donald Trump tightening his grip on the Republican presidential nomination, the widespread problems have caused deepening concern among top Republican officials. There is no one explanation for the disparate party struggles in the swing states that matter most for the presidency. But across the map, state parties have become combat zones for the broader struggles inside the GOP between the party’s old guard and its ascendant Trump wing, with rifts that can prove divisive and costly.”