President Trump called for former special counsel Jack Smith and others to be “investigated and put in prison,” NBC News reports.
Said Trump: “These thugs should all be investigated and put in prison. A disgrace to humanity. Deranged Jack Smith is a criminal!!!”
Just published: How to Test Negative for Stupid: And Why Washington Never Will by Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA).
A senator’s tongue-in-cheek guidebook through Washington, punctuated by humorous stories about life from Louisiana politics and inside the Senate.
A new Quinnipiac poll in New York City finds Zohran Mamdani leading the mayoral race with 43% support among likely voters, followed by Andrew Cuomo at 33% and Curtis Sliwa at 14%.
The Federal Reserve lowered interest rates at its second consecutive meeting on Wednesday, extending an effort to prevent a recent slowdown in hiring from turning into something more serious, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Washington Post: “After keeping rates steady since January to assess the impact of President Donald Trump’s trade and immigration policies, the Fed cut rates in September and signaled cautiously that more reductions could be coming, even as inflation remains persistently high. However, Fed officials are increasingly worried about the state of the labor market.”
“If you listened to House Republicans on Wednesday, Zohran Mamdani shut down the federal government,” Punchbowl News reports.
“House Republican leadership continually blamed the funding impasse on Mamdani, the Democratic candidate for mayor of New York. It’s the newest GOP talking point with the citywide election less than a week away.”
“This is no more true than when Republicans blamed the continuing shutdown on the recent ‘No Kings’ rally. But they’re running with it.”
“The U.S. is withdrawing some troops from Romania, on NATO’s eastern flank, as the Pentagon works to shift its focus away from Europe and toward homeland defense and Latin America,” CNN reports.
North Korea said that it has conducted successful cruise missile tests, the latest display of its growing military capabilities and one that came a day before President Trump visited South Korea, the AP reports.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz was cut off during a speech aiming to “correct the fake news” about Cuba in a wild exchange at the United Nations
Cuba’s foreign minister abruptly cut him off: “This is the UN General Assembly, not a Signal chat.”
“Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo earned nearly $5 million working as a private consultant in 2024, a sum so large it puts him in the top 0.5 percent of New York City earners,” the New York Times reports.
“The tax documents show that Mr. Cuomo derived $4,712,978, almost all of his income last year, from Innovation Strategies, a pass-through company created for his consulting work before he ran for mayor of New York City.”
“By using his company as an in-between, Mr. Cuomo avoided having to disclose the individual clients who paid for his services.”
“Democrats are expanding their probes into President Donald Trump’s demolition of the East Wing and construction of his planned ballroom, with lawmakers pressing the White House and outside companies to explain the project’s finances and what was promised to contributors,” the Washington Post reports.
Aaron Blake: The White House ballroom saga could be worse for Trump than he realizes.
“Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has repeatedly criticized his rival, Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, for living in a rent-stabilized apartment, occupied a rent-stabilized unit himself when he was a young professional living in New York City in the 1980s,” the New York Times reports.
The Justice Department has placed two federal prosecutors in Washington on leave a day after they filed a document in court that referred to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol as a “riot” carried out by a “mob,” the Washington Post reports.
President Trump’s family raked in more than $800 million from sales of crypto assets in the first half of 2025 alone, a Reuters examination found, on top of potentially billions more in unrealized “on paper” gains.
Much of that cash has come from foreign sources as Trump’s sons have touted their business on an international investor roadshow.
President Trump floated working with Democrats on an alternative to ObamaCare, saying the two parties could come up with a “much better” option, The Hill reports.
Said Trump: “We have to fix health care, because ObamaCare is a disaster.”
He added: “When you see the increases in ObamaCare, it never worked. It never will work, and we can do something with the Democrats much better than ObamaCare. Less money and better health care.”
Just published: Autocrats vs. Democrats: China, Russia, America, and the New Global Disorder by Michael McFaul.
“The alliance between the autocracies of China and Russia, China’s economic might, the rise of the far right in the United States and Europe, and the disturbing isolationist foreign policy shifts of the Trump administration—taken together represent new challenges for the democratic world. They are threats with no precedent in the past century.”
The Atlantic runs an excerpt: “By rejecting the lessons of the previous century, the president has undermined America’s advantage over China and Russia.”
“The U.S. economy will lose between $7 billion and $14 billion due to the federal government shutdown, according to a new report released by Congress’s nonpartisan bookkeeper,” the Washington Post reports.
“Russia has successfully tested a nuclear-capable, nuclear-powered underwater drone, President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday, defying President Donald Trump’s warnings with Moscow’s second test of a new nuclear weapons system in just a few days,” AFP reports.
Said Putin: “Yesterday, another test was conducted for another prospective system – the unmanned underwater device ‘Poseidon’, also equipped with a nuclear power unit.”
“The Russian leader said there was ‘no way to intercept’ the drone torpedo, which, according to Putin, can travel at a speed higher than conventional submarines and reach any continent in the world.”
Wired: “You have to wonder—how do these videos end up on Trump’s official account in the first place?”
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.
