“When Israel announced Tuesday that it had launched a strike on senior Hamas leaders in Qatar, one security agency was notably missing from the official statements: the Mossad,” the Washington Post reports.
“That’s because Israel’s external intelligence agency had declined to carry out a plan it had drawn up in recent weeks to use agents on the ground to assassinate Hamas leaders.”
Erika Kirk vowed in a speech today to continue her husband’s movement and said that “the cries of this widow will echo around the world like a battle cry,” USA Today reports.
Said Kirk: “If you thought that my husband’s mission was powerful before, you have no idea. You have no idea what you’ve just unleashed across this entire country, and this world. You have no idea the fire you’ve ignited within this wife.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R), who is running for U.S. Senate in the Republican primary, was “caught in shocking sex scandal as details of secret affair with married Christian influencer mom-of-seven are exposed,” the Daily Mail reports.
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Vanity Fair: “Suspect Tyler Robinson allegedly inscribed messages on bullet casings that reference video games and internet culture—but they hardly point toward a coherent ideology.”
Far-right conspiracy theorist Nick Fuentes told his followers, known as “groypers,” that if they turn to violence in the wake of the killing of Charlie Kirk, he will “disavow” and “disown’ them, Mediaite reports.
Said Fuentes: “This is a very delicate situation. This is a very delicate situation. I fear that this has set off a chain reaction. I pray to God there is no further violence. I pray to God that nobody else is hurt as a result of this. I hope that it stops here. It should stop here. To all of my followers: if you take up arms, I disavow you. I disown you in the strongest possible terms.”
“Fuentes and his so-called ‘groyper army’ have long been critics of Kirk, infiltrating his events in the past to troll the speakers and try and turn the crowd toward a more extreme, white nationalist version of conservatism.”
“A loan estimate for an Atlanta home purchased by Lisa Cook, the Federal Reserve governor accused of mortgage fraud by the Trump administration, shows that Cook had declared the property as a “vacation home,’” Reuters reports.
“The document appears to counter other documentation that Cook’s critics have cited in support of their claims that she committed mortgage fraud by reporting two different homes as her primary residence.”
“The 22-year-old university student accused of assassinating MAGA firebrand Charlie Kirk grew up in a staunchly Republican, Trump-backing family,” the Daily Mail reports.
“Tyler Robinson’s grandmother Debbie Robinson, 69, said she is stunned by the charges against her grandson, describing him as a quiet, reserved young man who ‘never’ spoke about politics, despite his father’s staunch Trump support.”
Said Robinson: “My son, his dad, is a Republican for Trump… Most of my family members are Republican. I don’t know any single one who’s a Democrat. I’m just so confused.”
“In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, right-wing influencers and at least one Trump administration official have actively encouraged people to scour the internet for remarks celebrating the killing and to expose those who have posted them online,” the New York Times reports.
“The widespread and fast-moving campaign of naming-and-shaming has already resulted in countless lost jobs, professional suspensions and internal investigations, exacerbating the already fraught tensions over the shooting that exist online.”
The Intellectualist: “Tyler James Robinson, the man arrested for Kirk’s murder, is listed in Utah voter records as unaffiliated and inactive.”
“He was not registered as a Democrat, not registered as a Republican, and had not cast ballots in recent elections.”
“That clarity matters because it underscores just how quickly narrative outpaced fact — and how dangerous that can be.”
“Social media is a cancer, and I would urge people to log off, turn off, and touch grass.”
— Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R), at a press conference.
“After weeks of discussions among his advisers, allies and donors about how he could intervene in the race for New York City mayor, President Trump appears increasingly resigned to a potential victory by Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee,” the New York Times reports.
Said Trump: “I’m not looking at the polls too carefully, but it would look like he’s going to win. And that’s a rebellion. It’s also a rebellion against bad candidates.”
“Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said former Trump adviser Elon Musk was “backward” in his efforts to cut government waste through the firings led by the U.S. DOGE Service,” the Washington Post reports.
Said Lutnick: “The focus should have been on cutting the waste, fraud and abuse, and the people you could do over time. I thought he got that backward.”
“Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), a potential 2028 presidential candidate, quietly met with several state legislators Friday morning in the critical Democratic primary state of South Carolina,” Axios reports.
“Kelly has been raising millions of dollars and traveling the country the last several months, which could set the Arizona senator up for a presidential bid.”
“A federal judge worried publicly Friday that the Trump administration had, ‘with a wink and a nod,’ deported a group of African nationals to Ghana, only to have Ghana redirect them to countries where they may face torture and persecution,” Politico reports.
“U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan is still weighing what, if any, power she has to order protections for the group of Nigerian and Gambian citizens, who were abruptly sent to Ghana last week aboard a U.S. military plane. But she made clear that she viewed the administration’s actions as underhanded.”
“I think it’s frankly ridiculous that anyone in this room would even suggest that President Trump is doing anything for his own benefit.”
— White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, speaking to reporters.
“Two days after the killing of Charlie Kirk made national headlines, the late public speaker’s podcast went live once again. This time, with an empty chair in his honor,” The Wrap reports.
“Missouri Republicans handed President Donald Trump a political victory Friday, giving final legislative approval to a redistricting plan that could help Republicans win an additional U.S. House seat in next year’s elections,” the AP reports.
Politico: “The Congressional Budget Office’s new economic estimates released Friday predict that over the next three years, policies implemented this year by Trump and the Republican-led Congress will have little effect on growth before the 2028 election.”
“That’s because Trump’s tariff policies and crackdown on immigration are estimated to cool the economy this year, more than outweighing any growth spurred by the tax and spending package Republicans turned into law this summer.”
Bloomberg: “The report also shows unemployment peaking at a higher rate of 4.5% at the end of this year.”
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.
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