House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) opened a massive rift with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Punchbowl News reports.
Jeffries returned to the Capitol after his party’s retreat to lobby against the House GOP continuing resolution, which Schumer said last night he would vote for.
He added that House Democrats are “not afraid of a government funding showdown and we will win that showdown.”
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) announced he’s getting rid of his Tesla Model S, saying the car felt like “a rolling billboard” advertising Elon Musk.
Said Kelly: “Elon Musk kind of turned out to be an asshole, and I don’t want to drive a car built and designed by an asshole.”
“Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will return to a Wisconsin battleground House district next week as part of a multi-state tour to highlight Republicans who have stopped holding in-person town halls following backlash over the Trump administration’s government cuts,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
“The former 2024 Democratic vice presidential nominee plans to hold a town hall-style event Tuesday in Eau Claire. It will be in western Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District — the state’s tightest battleground seat held by Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden, who like others in his party has declined to hold in-person constituent town halls after GOP leadership advised against them.”
Former New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) is keeping the door open to a possible Republican run next year in the race to succeed retiring Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D), Fox News reports.
Said Sununu: “I’m not saying it’s a high probability. Can’t wait to jump in. Definitely not.”
“One of the four men accused of being a sexual predator by Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) is suing the South Carolina congresswoman for defamation and libel, contending she knowingly made false claims about him both before and after she made her House of Representatives floor speech where she described herself as their victim,” the Charleston Post & Courier reports.
“Most Michigan swing voters in our latest Engagious/Sago focus groups said that although they voted for President Trump in November, they have objections, frustrations and fears about his behavior since he returned to power.”
“Ten of 13 participants from this battleground, auto-industry state bordering Canada said what they’re seeing isn’t what they thought they were voting for — and they’re worried Trump’s approach may hurt their pocketbooks.”
“House Democrats from across the party’s ideological spectrum — united in their fury at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) — are engaged in a campaign to get Senate Democrats to defy their leader,” Axios reports.
“House lawmakers feel that there is a glimmer of hope, however faint, that they can actually persuade their Senate counterparts to reject a Republican-led government spending bill.”
Said one House Democrat: “There is a massive effort going on with people reaching out to their senators … still happening this morning.”
CNBC: “The market value of the S&P 500 at its Feb. 19 peak was $52.06 trillion, according to FactSet. Thursday’s decline put the index’s market value down to $46.78 trillion.”
“That makes for a total loss of about $5.28 trillion in about three weeks.”
President Trump said on Friday there is a “very good chance” the war between Russia and Ukraine can end after “productive” discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Reuters reports.
“Consumer sentiment took another hit in March as worries intensified over inflation and a slumping stock market, according to the University of Michigan’s latest sentiment survey released Friday,” CNBC reports.
“The survey posted a mid-month reading of 57.9, which represents a 10.5% decline from February and was below the Dow Jones consensus estimate for 63.2. The reading was 27.1% below a year ago and was the lowest since November 2022.”
President Trump congratulated Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for “doing the right thing” by backing the Republican-led bill to avert a government shutdown, a choice that’s put the New York Democrat at odds with many in his party, Politico reports.
Said Trump: “Again, really good and smart move by Senator Schumer. Took ‘guts’ and courage!”
“Friedrich Merz, the likely next chancellor of Germany, announced on Friday that he had cut a deal with the Green Party to allow extensive new government spending for defense, infrastructure and projects related to climate change, appearing to seal the votes for a stunning turnabout in German fiscal policy before he even takes office,” the New York Times reports.
“In the past few weeks, the Justice Department under President Trump has taken an expansive view of the pardons he issued to all of the nearly 1,600 people charged in connection with the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021,” the New York Times reports.
“Department officials, after initially concluding that the pardons covered only crimes that were committed at the Capitol on the day of the attack, have now decided that Mr. Trump’s mercy should also extend to other offenses — like possessing illegal firearms — that were uncovered later and in different places as federal agents investigated suspects for their roles in the events of Jan. 6.”
“On Thursday evening, however, a federal judge in Washington issued an order strongly pushing back on the Justice Department’s broader interpretation of Mr. Trump’s clemency decree.”
“Americans are skeptical that President Donald Trump’s approach to the war between Russia and Ukraine will bring peace to the region,” according to a new CNN poll.
“Most Americans view Trump’s handling of the conflict negatively, and 50% say his approach to the war is bad for the United States.”
Jonathan Lamire: “He denounced the European Union as ‘hostile’ and ‘abusive’ while threatening to ratchet up tariffs on some of its most famous goods by 200 percent. He openly mused about annexing Greenland while sitting in the Oval Office across from the head of the military alliance that would be called to defend it. He vowed to escalate a trade war with Canada while threatening its very right to exist as a sovereign nation.”
“But when it came to the authoritarian leader in Moscow, President Donald Trump boasted of his relationship with Vladimir Putin and declined to say that he would pressure his Russian counterpart to agree to concessions as part of a cease-fire deal with Ukraine. Trump’s sympathies seemed to lie with America’s foe over its friends, further unnerving already-whiplashed allies watching anxiously as the president’s handpicked envoy met with Putin at the Kremlin.”
“And that was all today—a day not unlike many in the early weeks of this new administration.”
A new Pew Research survey finds nearly three-quarters of U.S. adults — 72% — say the pandemic did more to drive the country apart than to bring it together.
Meanwhile, a recent Gallup poll found just 47% of Americans said “their life is completely back to normal. Another 13% say their life has not yet returned to pre-pandemic normalcy but expect it will, while 40% do not anticipate it ever getting back to normal.”
“The Republican-led Congress isn’t just watching the Trump administration gobble up its constitutional powers. It is enthusiastically turning them over to the White House,” the New York Times reports.
“GOP lawmakers are doing so this week by embracing a stopgap spending bill that gives the administration wide discretion over how federal dollars are distributed, in effect handing off the legislative branch’s spending authority to President Trump. But that is just one example of how Congress, under unified Republican control, is proactively relinquishing some of its fundamental and critical authority on oversight, economic issues and more.”
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.