Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) “is reminding voters that her name is still on the ballot in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate,” the Portland Press Herald reports.
Said Mills: “People have the impression that I ‘withdrew’ or ‘dropped out’ but I simply suspended active campaigning. I am still on the ballot.”
President Trump claimed peace talks with Iran are continuing again “at a rapid pace.”
“If you’re a conservative watching Democrats talk themselves into supporting Graham Platner, the Maine Democrat who until recently wore what sure looked like a Totenkopf tattoo (he covered it up after it became a political embarrassment), you’re probably experiencing déjà vu. To a lesser but still familiar degree, I’m seeing Democrats engage in the same process of absurd accommodation and justification that Republicans use to excuse their deep love for Trump.”
— David French, writing in the New York Times early last month.
Oliver Darcy: “On Monday morning, the staff of ’60 Minutes’ convened for an introductory meeting with Bari Weiss’ handpicked new executive producer of the program, Nick Bilton. Bilton, the technology journalist who lacks both broadcast news and managerial experience, opened the meeting by reading from some prepared notes. He didn’t get far…”
“In the extraordinary back and forth, an impassioned Pelley relentlessly pressed Bilton on Weiss’ intentions for the storied newsmagazine, pointed out that he has no relevant experience to helm television’s most prestigious news program, grilled Bilton on what he knew about the firings, and more.”
Said Bilton, according to audio of the meeting: “Bari loves this institution. She loves ’60 Minutes.'”
Pelley countered: “She’s murdering ’60 Minutes.’ She does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it—and she’s doing exactly that.”
President Trump told CNBC he doesn’t care about the possible collapse of peace negotiations with Iran: “I don’t care if they’re over, honestly.”
He added: “I really don’t care. I couldn’t care less.”
CNN: “Many Senate Republican remain furious at the Trump administration’s $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund and are refusing to advance a separate bill to fund immigration enforcement until they are satisfied that payouts won’t go to people who assaulted police during the January attack on the US Capitol and other guardrails are put in place.”
“Yet despite vocal public complaints from those GOP senators over the last two weeks, the White House has yet to offer a serious solution to their concerns, according to two Republican aides who say the immigration funding will remain stalled until it does.”
CNN: “The Supreme Court on Monday sided with a death row inmate in Florida who was blocked from challenging his sentence even though a lower court acknowledged a key witness lied on stand, marking the third time the conservative high court has backed an inmate sentenced to death in recent weeks.”
Associated Press: “Now Kean has missed more than 100 votes in Congress, and he has not been spotted in Washington or in his district. It is a political mystery with potentially national consequences: Kean represents a district that is among Democrats’ top targets as they try to retake control of Congress.”
“Kean’s office insists he is still running for reelection. He is not facing any challengers in Tuesday’s primary while several Democrats are running for their party’s nomination.”
President Trump told NBC News he had not been informed of Iran’s decision to suspend peace negotiations ahead of time.
Said Trump: “It’s an appropriate thing to say, because they’re better negotiators than they are fighters. But they haven’t informed us of that.”
He added: “It doesn’t mean we’re going to go and start dropping bombs all over there. We’ll keep the blockade.”
Politico: “Speaker Mike Johnson is with President Donald Trump at the White House Tuesday morning, meeting about the stuck GOP immigration enforcement bill.”
Former first lady Jill Biden told NBC News she felt she “had to support” President Joe Biden publicly in the wake of his disastrous 2024 debate with Donald Trump, despite acknowledging now that she feared her husband might have been having a stroke.
“A standoff between the White House and the Senate remains unresolved after Republican senators defiantly left town 10 days ago without passing legislation to fund President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement agencies,” the Associated Press reports.
“Senate Republicans who are returning to Washington on Monday say they won’t have the votes to pass the Homeland Security spending bill until the White House works with them to place parameters on a new $1.776 billion settlement fund designed to compensate Trump’s allies. But Trump has shown little interest in doing so, even after a judge temporarily halted any payouts.”
“It’s unclear how they will settle the dispute.”
The Redoubt: “Right-wing extremism is going mainstream, but it’s not getting the coverage.”
A new Penn Live poll in Pennsylvania finds President Trump’s approval rating has dropped to 34%, his lowest on record.
Key finding: The poll found 71% of Pennsylvanians believing that Trump’s tariffs are hurting them, an 11-point increase from April. Only 9% of Pennsylvania voters now believe the President’s signature economic policy is helping them.
Quinta Jurecic: “The NDAs would ostensibly forbid federal workers from sharing ‘non-public, confidential, or proprietary information’ outside the government, including with the press. Exactly what constitutes such information remains unclear, as does the proposal’s legal validity.”
Andrew Egger: “If you’re a Democrat, it’s certainly not unreasonable to look at a guy like Platner and say: Okay, so he’s a cheater—now explain to me exactly why I should think that means Republicans should control the Senate?”
“I don’t have a convenient moral to the story here. It’s not like the answer is just for the parties to keep running the same old colorless senior-citizen career politicians. Voters don’t like them, and they shouldn’t. If Maine Gov. Janet Mills hadn’t been such an uninspiring establishment Senate candidate, Platner would never have found a populist wave to catch in the first place.”
“But I do worry that the path we’re on is one that makes it easier and easier for Democrats to follow Republicans into just abandoning character-related assessments of their candidates altogether. We’re currently in the midst of a long, painful education in how badly that can go on the GOP side of the aisle. Once you decide moral fiber in your leaders is a luxury your party can no longer afford, it’s amazing how quickly things can get out of hand.”
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.
