Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) walked back his agreement to debate Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) on C-SPAN’s “Ceasefire” program, The Hill reports.
Said Johnson: “I’ll debate Hakeem Jeffries anywhere, anytime — as soon as we get the government open.”
President Trump attacked former President Biden and former Special Counsel Jack Smith in an Oval Office screed.
Said Trump: “I think it was the worst weaponization of a political opponent in the history of the world… Deranged Jack Smith in my opinion is a criminal. I hope they’re gonna look into Weissmann too… Lisa Monaco should be looked at very strongly.”
The New York Times notes the reaction of top Justice Department officials: “They smiled, nodded and shuffled in place as he spoke.”
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) said that she’d been handed a copy of an unreleased government report on the John F. Kennedy assassination — but from the Russian government, The Independent reports.
Said Luna: “I have received a hard copy of the report on JFK’s assassination from the Ambassador of Russia. A team of experts is enroute [sic] to my office in the morning to begin translation and full review of documents.”
She added: “We will be uploading as soon as we can.”
Dean Blundell: “Luna just did something that would have ended careers a decade ago: she publicly solicited documents from the Kremlin, received them from Russia’s ambassador, thanked Moscow on Twitter, and promised to publish whatever they handed her.”
“This should sound familiar. It’s exactly what happened in 2019 when Lev Parnas and Rudy Giuliani pushed Russian disinformation through congressional Republicans to attack Joe Biden. The difference now is they’re doing it openly.”
“We call it the Hate America Rally that will happen Saturday. Let’s see who shows up for that. I bet you you’ll see Hamas supporters, I bet you’ll see antifa types. I bet you’ll see Marxists on full display, people who don’t want to stand and defend the foundational truths of this republic.”
— Speaker Mike Johnson, quoted by Mediaite, on the “No Kings” rallies planned for this weekend.
Mother Jones: “The oldest appears to be Joe Maligno, who public records suggest is 35. In the chat, he spoke about gas chambers and used a racial slur toward Chinese people. Maligno previously identified himself as general counsel for the New York State Young Republicans.”
“Maligno did not respond to requests for comment from Politico. According to a Wednesday follow-up report from the outlet, he lost his job as an employee of the New York State Unified Court System.”
Associated Press: “News outlets were nearly unanimous in rejecting new rules imposed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that would leave journalists vulnerable to expulsion if they sought to report on information — classified or otherwise — that had not been approved by Hegseth for release.”
“Many of the reporters waited to leave together at a 4 p.m. deadline set by the Defense Department to get out of the building. As the hour approached, boxes of documents lined a Pentagon corridor and reporters carried chairs, a copying machine, books and old photos to the parking lot from suddenly abandoned workspaces. Shortly after 4, about 40 to 50 journalists left together after handing in badges.”
“Federal immigration officers in the Chicago area will be required to wear body cameras, a judge said Thursday after seeing tear gas and other aggressive steps used against protesters,” the AP reports.
A Financial Times investigation “has found that Donald Trump and his family’s crypto businesses reaped more than $1 billion in pre-tax profits over the past year, in part due to the boom fueled by the administration’s industry-friendly policies.”
“The Trump crypto empire is built on a vast web of opaque ventures in the largely unregulated industry, including digital trading cards, memecoins, stablecoins, tokens and a so-called decentralized finance platform — all touting their close ties to the president’s family.”
New York Times: “As the only Democrat running for the Senate in a state that President Trump won in 2024, Mr. Ossoff risks alienating some voters by sticking with his party in refusing to vote to reopen the government until Mr. Trump and congressional Republicans come to the table to negotiate an extension of Obamacare subsidies that are slated to expire at the end of the year.”
“But the shutdown fight is also a chance for Mr. Ossoff to rally core Democratic supporters behind him as he braces for a difficult campaign, at a time when many in his party are spoiling for a fight against Mr. Trump.”
“The Justice Department is expected to present a possible criminal case and seek a grand jury indictment against former national security adviser John Bolton as soon as Thursday afternoon at a federal courthouse in Greenbelt, Maryland,” CBS News reports.
“The U.S. military’s elite Special Operations aviation unit appears to have flown in Caribbean waters less than 90 miles from the coast of Venezuela in recent days,” the Washington Post reports.
“The helicopters were engaged in training exercises, according to a U.S. official, that could serve as preparation for expanded conflict against alleged drug traffickers, including potentially missions inside Venezuela…”
“The U.S. has declared it is in ‘armed conflict’ with drug traffickers, though lawmakers and legal experts have said the strikes are unlawful killings of people who are suspected criminals and not battlefield combatants.”
The White House’s “chaos” video from Chicago “is littered with outdated footage highlighting drug busts, arrests and deportation raids in other states, including Florida, Texas, South Carolina and Nebraska,” AFP reports.
Meanwhile, several clips “that authentically showed Chicago were from January 2025 — not captured as Trump sought to deploy troops in October.”
CNN: “A growing number of affected employees — both furloughed workers and essential staffers who must continue showing up to work with no pay — have been chronicling their shutdown experience on the video app to educate other users about the situation. Some hope the videos might earn them a bit of extra cash, as they have no timeline for their next paycheck.”
Americans who say the U.S. is less healthy under the leadership of President Trump and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. now outnumber believers 2-to-1, per the latest Axios-Ipsos poll.
“President Trump is expected to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on Friday,” Axios reports.
“The two will discuss what weapons should be supplied to Ukraine, specifically if the U.S. should provide game-changing long-range Tomahawk missiles to the war-torn country.”
National Journal: “Republican incumbents on average outpaced their Democratic counterparts. The 16 Patriots, those the National Republican Congressional Committee considers the most vulnerable, raised an average of $763,000 and had an average cash on hand of $2.4 million. Frontliners, the 26 incumbents marked by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, raised an average of $664,000 and had an average of $1.6 million on hand.”
“A posthumous memoir by Jeffrey Epstein accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre offers an expanded account about her longstanding claims to have been sexually trafficked by the late financier to billionaires, politicians and Britain’s Prince Andrew.” CBS 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.
