“I wasn’t there to play nice. I was there to expose the rot and corruption, and I did. And I’m going to continue to do it. Republicans and Democrats alike. Swampy, slimy people selling this country down a river… If you were to put them all under the same scrutiny I was put under, you’d fucking vacate the whole goddamn building.”
— Former Rep. George Santos (R-NY), in an interview.
“The Pentagon said it will run out of money to replace weapons sent to Ukraine by Dec. 30 unless Congress approves new funding, for the first time giving a precise date for when it will have exhausted its cash,” Bloomberg reports.
Byron York: “Look at the last day the national race was close, or relatively close: March 27 of this year, when Trump led DeSantis in the RealClearPolitics average by 15 points, 44% to 29%. Just days later, Trump was indicted for the first time, by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, and his poll numbers rose sharply. By April 20, just three weeks later, Trump had risen 10 points to 54%. In the same time, DeSantis fell 7 points, to 22%. Trump’s lead over DeSantis had more than doubled, courtesy of Bragg.”
“In the months that followed, Trump was indicted four more times, twice by special counsel Jack Smith, who was appointed by the Biden Justice Department, and once by Fani Willis, the district attorney of Fulton County, Georgia. Through it all, Trump’s poll standing rose, from 44 points in late March to 54 points in late April to 58 points in September to 63 points today. Yes, his support has bumped up and down a little in that time, but Trump has not been below 50% support nationally since he first passed that mark on April 4 of this year.”
“What has happened can only be called an enormous backfire for those Democrats and Never Trumpers who thought indicting Trump would bring him down. As far as the Republican polls are concerned, it has done just the opposite. Now, some Democrats and Never Trumpers believe that convicting Trump, at least once, will bring him down. Maybe they’re right. But maybe they’re not.”
“Donald Trump and Donald Trump Jr. have come to the defense of a one time social media influencer who has been convicted of election interference and has a well-known history of pushing deeply racist, antisemitic, anti-Muslim and homophobic content online,” CNN reports.
Former Rep. George Santos (R-NY) has a message for his ex-colleagues in Congress, saying he’ll “outlive them,” The Hill reports.
Said Santos: “I’ll be back. I’m 35. They’re all in their 50s. I’ll outlive them. Each and last one of them.”
“The far-right Alternative for Germany has won its first election for mayor of a midsized German town, another milestone in the rising popularity of the party that has been boosted by voter disillusionment with the country’s ruling coalition,” the Financial Times reports.
Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni admitted on Sunday that she had not been able to fulfill her campaign pledge to curb the inflow of irregular migrants, calling migration “the most complex phenomenon I’ve ever had to deal with,” the Financial Times reports.
Jonathan Chait: “Donald Trump has flitted erratically from one position to another on a variety of political beliefs, but he has hewed with remarkable consistency to one: Dictators are good. Trump has maintained this belief throughout his long public career, and he asserted it once again in a speech in New Hampshire Saturday.”
“In the address, Trump cited Hungarian strongman Viktor Orbán, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, and North Korean hereditary communist monarch Kim Jong-un as authorities on his own superiority…”
“Trump is not merely making a Kissingerian argument that these foreign leaders maintained peaceful international relations with him as president. He is citing them specifically as experts on domestic American governance. They know how to run a society, Trump boasts, and they see in Trump a strong leader in the same mold.”
The Daily interviewed Kate Cox, the woman who fought the Texas abortion ban and ultimately was forced to leave the state to end her troubled pregnancy.
“They got drunk, painted themselves like Indians and pushed tea bags into the Boston Harbor, which we in Rhode Island think is pretty weak tea compared to blowing up the goddamn boat and shooting its captain. But you know, all those Massachusetts people went on to become president and run Harvard… So they told their story, and their story, and their story.”
— Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), quoted by the Washington Post, arguing that Rhode Island’s 1772 attack on the HMS Gaspee was more important than the 1773 Boston Tea Party.
“Democrats face an uphill battle in their quest to keep control of the Senate, but Republicans are involved in messy primaries that could upend their chances at taking control,” the Washington Post reports.
“Primaries remain unsettled more than 10 months before Election Day — which is normal — but national Republicans have been trying to correct the mistakes of the past and avoid GOP candidates who can’t win a general election.”
“Ministers have given up on signing a trade agreement with the US before the next election, after the Biden administration signalled it had no interest in agreeing one,” The Guardian reports.
A new Monmouth poll find President Biden’s overall job performance at 34% approve and 61% disapprove – his lowest rating since he took office.
Since September, his approval number has dropped 4 points and his disapproval number has increased by 6 points.
Said pollster Patrick Murray: “The Biden administration keeps touting their infrastructure investments and a host of positive economic indicators. Those data points may be factual, but most Americans are still smarting from higher prices caused by post-pandemic inflation. This seems to be what’s driving public opinion. There is political danger in pushing a message that basically tells people their take on their own situation is wrong.”
The late Justice Sandra Day O’Connor will lie in repose at the Supreme Court today, the Washington Post reports.
At a New Hampshire rally, Donald Trump shifted from calling the jailed January 6 rioters as “political prisoners” to calling them “hostages.”
Semafor: “The Senate’s chances of reaching a bipartisan deal on Ukraine aid and the border by Christmas seemed to dim over the weekend.”
Nikki Haley has launched a new campaign ad calling President Biden “too old,” in one of the most direct attacks on the president’s age this election cycle, the Washington Post reports.
Said Haley, in the ad: “I’ll just say it: Biden’s too old. And Congress is the most exclusive nursing home in America.”
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.