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Graham Platner Has a Growing Senate Fan Club

October 9, 2025 at 9:45 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Senate Democrats are warming up to an upstart oyster farmer in the crucial Maine Senate race. Now they’ll have to decide if they are willing to snub their party’s dream recruit to support him,” Politico reports.

“So far, Graham Platner only has one public endorsement from a sitting senator, Vermont independent Bernie Sanders. But more than a half-dozen Democratic senators sang his praises in interviews this week, even as Minority Leader Chuck Schumer grows closer to landing his top recruiting target to run against Sen. Susan Collins — not Platner, but Gov. Janet Mills.”

Trump’s Order to Pam Bondi Was Intended to Be Private

October 9, 2025 at 9:39 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Wall Street Journal: “On Sept. 20, Trump meant to send a private message to Attorney General Pam Bondi urging her to prosecute former FBI Director James Comey and his other favored targets…”

“Trump believed he had sent Bondi the message directly, addressing it to ‘Pam,’ and was surprised to learn it was public… Bondi grew upset and called White House aides and Trump, who then agreed to send a second post praising Bondi as doing a ‘GREAT job.'”

“The misfire provided a window into how, through command and chaos, Trump has executed a wholesale transformation of the Justice Department.”

Trump to Get His ‘Yearly Check Up’ Early

October 9, 2025 at 9:29 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President Trump is going back to Walter Reed for a “routine yearly check up,” just six months after he had an annual physical there, CNN reports.

It’s not clear why he is going back so soon.

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Tom Steyer to Spend $12 Million on California Redistricting

October 9, 2025 at 9:23 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“As California voters receive mail ballots for the November special election, which could upend the state’s congressional boundaries and determine control of the House, billionaire hedge-fund founder Tom Steyer said Thursday he will spend $12 million to back Democrats’ efforts to redraw districts to boost their party’s ranks in the legislative body,” the Los Angeles Times reports.

Mayor Admits to Stealing Church Funds

October 9, 2025 at 8:52 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

South Lake Tahoe Mayor Tamara Wallace wrote in the Tahoe Daily Tribune that she attempted suicide because of the guilt and shame she felt from embezzling funds from a local church.  

Said Wallace: “This is the hardest thing I have ever had to do. I am publicly admitting that I took funds from the Presbyterian Church over an extended period. Because of this, on September 11, 2025, my birthday, I tried to end my life. I was so filled with guilt, shame, and grief that I experienced a mental health crisis that made suicide seem to be the best solution.”

Norway on Edge Ahead of Nobel Peace Prize Verdict

October 9, 2025 at 8:48 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Norway is bracing for the aftermath of the Nobel Peace Prize announcement on Friday as the Nordic nation has faced increasing pressure from Donald Trump and his administration to award it to the U.S. leader,” Bloomberg reports.

“His campaign has thrust Oslo into an uncomfortable spotlight, with media and observers worrying about the diplomatic and economic fallout should the Norwegian Nobel Committee snub him. Even so, there is growing indication that pressure has been, if anything, counterproductive.”

Bonus Quote of the Day

October 9, 2025 at 8:42 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“I’m so embarrassed on behalf of my Republican colleagues for not even being willing to say that you shouldn’t jail your political opponents.”

— Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI), quoted by NOTUS.

Democrats Dig In on Shutdown

October 9, 2025 at 8:39 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

CNN: “Inside the party, anxiety is rising among vulnerable Democrats about active-duty military service members missing a paycheck on October 15 — something that hasn’t happened on a large scale in modern times. But Democratic leaders are confident their party will maintain its position through that deadline and longer if necessary.”

“It’s a major gamble for Democrats in Washington, who voted on Wednesday for a sixth time in the Senate to reject a GOP funding proposal to reopen the government. But they believe the longer they can hold out, the more public pressure will build in their favor as they expect millions of Americans receive notices in the mail about spiking health care premiums — which they hope will force President Donald Trump and GOP leaders to concede to a deal to extend billions of dollars in Affordable Care Act subsidies.”

When Leaders Stop Listening

October 9, 2025 at 8:25 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

The first case study I ever read in graduate school was from Graham Allison’s Essence of Decision — the classic examination of how real-world government decisions are made.

Allison’s insight was deceptively simple but profound: what we call “decisions” are rarely the product of one rational mind. They emerge from bureaucracies, organizational routines, and power struggles that limit what information leaders even see.

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Johnson Says Trump Shouldn’t Consider Pardoning Maxwell

October 9, 2025 at 7:50 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) told Piers Morgan that President Trump should not “even consider” pardoning Ghislaine Maxwell after Trump refused to rule out a pardon for the convicted sex trafficker.

Said Johnson: “I would never even consider it. I mean, she’s a convicted human trafficker. She was a party to this, she set it up by her own admission, she was involved in all this. There’s no way she should ever leave prison.”

Trump’s Feud with Pritzker Goes Back Decades

October 9, 2025 at 7:44 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“President Trump’s declaration this week that Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker should be jailed is just the latest clash between two billionaires who are part of a decadeslong feud,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“The Republican president and Democratic governor have fought over the size of their fortunes as well as topics ranging from crime to immigration to democracy. Pritzker in recent days has questioned Trump’s mental acuity, suggesting America’s leader has dementia.”

“The bad blood has been on the rise since late August, when Trump said he would act on his yearslong threat of deploying military troops in Chicago to combat crime.”

Quote of the Day

October 9, 2025 at 7:34 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“This is exactly the moment for people to stand up. And do I see enough people doing it? No, I don’t. It shouldn’t be that there are Democrats that are afraid, because you know what? We’re the targets. We need to be strong, we need to fight back.”

— Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D), quoted by the New York Times.

An Overwhelmingly White Administration

October 9, 2025 at 7:32 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

New York Times: “Of the president’s 98 Senate-confirmed appointees to the administration’s most senior leadership roles in its first 200 days, ending on Aug. 7, only two, or 2 percent — Scott Turner, the secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and Earl G. Matthews, the Defense Department’s general counsel — are Black.”

Trump Officials Juggle Multiple Roles

October 9, 2025 at 7:30 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

New York Times: “As Mr. Trump dismantles parts of the government, remakes institutions and takes on perceived enemies, he has often put his allies in charge of multiple federal agencies and offices — an approach that has little precedent.”

Retired Justice Laments Discourse of Trump Era

October 9, 2025 at 7:29 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Retired Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy said Wednesday he was troubled that partisanship seemed to be “creeping its way into the court,” and that the state of political discourse in the country has gotten so vulgar and vile that he worries for the country, Politico reports.

IRS Furloughs Nearly Half of Workforce

October 9, 2025 at 7:26 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The IRS will furlough just under half of its staff and pause most of the agency’s taxpayer services as gridlock in Congress pushes the government shutdown into its second week,” Bloomberg reports.

Trump Nears Major Diplomatic Accomplishment

October 9, 2025 at 7:13 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“President Trump is at the brink of the biggest diplomatic accomplishment of his second term — a cessation of the brutal war between Israel and Hamas — and on Wednesday evening he made clear he was eager to fly to the Middle East to preside over a cease-fire and welcome hostages who have spent two long years in underground captivity,” the New York Times reports.

“For Mr. Trump, success in this venture is the ultimate test of his self-described goal as a deal maker and a peacemaker — and a pathway to the Nobel Peace Prize he has so openly coveted. By chance, the winner for 2025 is scheduled to be announced just hours before he may be departing to take his victory lap in Egypt and Israel.”

Playbook: “This is only phase one of the deal. Enormously complex negotiations lie ahead to make this agreement permanent — not least over the decommissioning of Hamas’ arsenal; the future governance and reconstruction of the Gaza strip; and Israel’s future activities in the West Bank. To repeat: It’s still very possible it all falls apart.”

Washington Post: Trump wants a Nobel Prize. He’ll learn Friday if his campaign paid off.

Americans Blame Everyone for Shutdown

October 9, 2025 at 7:10 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Americans blame both Republicans and Democrats for the ongoing government shutdown and are worried services could falter as a third of the federal workforce sits on unpaid leave,” according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll.

“The five-day poll, completed on Tuesday, asked Americans nationwide how much blame Democrats, Republicans and President Donald Trump deserve for the shutdown, now in its ninth day. Some 67% of respondents said Republicans deserved a fair amount or a great deal of blame, while 63% said the same of Democrats. Some 63% also said Trump, a Republican, deserves at least a fair amount of blame.”

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About Political Wire

goddard-bw-snapshotTaegan 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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