Former Trump White House communications staffer Katie Miller — who is married to Trump aide Stephen Miller — told Reuters she remains employed by Elon Musk, even if she won’t disclose her exact title or role.
Said Miller: “My paycheck still comes from him.”
David Graham: “For much of the 20th century, American broadcast television revolved around three networks: NBC, ABC, and CBS. William S. Paley, CBS’s longtime CEO, made sure that his company—the Columbia Broadcasting Service—was a leader among them. The network was home to Edward R. Murrow, who brought World War II in Europe home to Americans on CBS Radio; after the war, Murrow’s reporting played a pivotal role in bringing down Senator Joseph McCarthy. Walter Cronkite dominated American evenings from his perch at the Evening News. And from the days of Mike Wallace to the more recent era of Lesley Stahl and Scott Pelley, 60 Minutes set the standard for long-form television reporting.”
“Yet CBS’s current ownership seems determined to demolish this legacy. This evening, the network announced plans to end The Late Show With Stephen Colbert when the host’s contract ends next May. Late-night personalities come and go, but usually that happens when their ratings sag. Colbert, however, has consistently led competitors in his timeslot. CBS said this was “purely a financial decision,” made as traditional linear television fades.”
“Perhaps this is true, but the network that once made Cronkite the most trusted man in America no longer gets the benefit of the doubt. CBS’s owners have made a series of decisions capitulating to President Donald Trump, and the surprise choice to allow Colbert—a consistent, prominent Trump critic—to walk seems like part of that pattern.”
Tara Palmeri interviewed Ghislaine Maxwell’s longtime friend, Christopher Mason who told her about the gift Maxwell gave Jeffrey Epstein for his 40th birthday in 1993: a song.
“She asked Mason to write it for her, and she had very specific instructions: it should include ‘schoolgirl crushes and Epstein’s 24-hour erections.'”
“Yes, really.”
“If you buy your own health insurance, you are probably going to pay more next year—a lot more,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Insurers are seeking hefty 2026 rate increases for Affordable Care Act marketplace plans, the coverage known as Obamacare. Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Illinois wants a 27% hike, while its sister Blue Cross plan in Texas is asking for 21%. The largest ACA plans in Washington state, Georgia and Rhode Island are all looking for premiums to surge more than 20%.”
“The companies say the big increases are needed because of higher healthcare costs and changing federal policy, including cuts to subsidies that help consumers pay for plans.”
U.S. Attorney Alina Habba told her staff that her tenure as a federal prosecutor will come to an end on Tuesday when she hits the 120-day limit for appointments made by the U.S. Attorney General, the New Jersey Globe reports.
President Trump said this morning that if there was a “smoking gun” on him and Jeffrey Epstein, the Democrats would’ve released it when they were in power.
Said Trump: “They had nothing!”
CNN: “Halfway through her 7 p.m. hour last night, Fox’s Laura Ingraham seemed poised to cover the bombshell reporting from a fellow Murdoch-owned outlet. ‘We have new news coming on about this as well from the Wall Street Journal. A new report tonight, next,’ she said.”
“But that ‘new report’ never came. Ingraham did not mention the Journal story at all during the rest of her hour; neither did the rest of the Fox primetime lineup.”
Brian Stelter: “At a time when other media outlets are hesitating and capitulating, Rupert Murdoch and the Wall Street Journal just stood up to President Trump and scooped one of the biggest political stories of the summer…”
“And yet… Murdoch’s Fox News has not mentioned the story once. So let me take a stab at answering all the questions I’m getting about the media mogul and his role.”
“Murdoch, age 94, wants to have it both ways. He wants to be a newsman (that’s how he sees himself) but also needs to be a businessman. He wants a muscular Journal breaking big stories but he also needs Fox News to keep printing money for his family and other shareholders.”
“It’s been readily apparent for years that Fox succeeds when it is The Trump Show. So Fox does what it does, ignores what it ignores. But Murdoch, who has always cared most of all about old-fashioned newspapers, derives satisfaction and a sense of power from the Journal.”
Oliver Darcy notes the White House — including Trump himself — pressured Murdoch to not publish the story.
“President Donald Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill,’ which he signed into law this month, includes major wins for business interests that carried out aggressive lobbying campaigns on Capitol Hill to secure favorable treatment for their industries,” CNN reports.
“An array of special interests raced to shape the legislation — carving out tax breaks for private jets, excluding potentially life-saving drugs from negotiations that would lower costs, and giving two of the world’s richest men a tax windfall for their space companies.”
President Trump’s approval rating in the Strength In Numbers polling average is 42.6%, versus a 53.5% disapproval — a new low for his second term.
“Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro will be required to wear an electronic ankle monitor after police carried out search warrants against him on Friday,” Bloomberg reports.
“Bolsonaro, who is about to stand trial over an alleged coup attempt, will also face restrictions on social media use.”
A new AP-NORC poll finds about two-thirds of U.S. adults expect the new tax law will help the rich.
“Most — about 6 in 10 — think it will do more to hurt than help low-income people. About half say it will do more harm than good for middle-class people and people like them.”
A new CNN poll finds only 23% of Americans say Israel’s actions have been fully justified, a 27-point drop from a October 2023 poll taken shortly after Hamas’ October 7 attacks.
Another 27% now say those actions have been partially justified and 22% say that they have not been justified at all. In October 2023, just 8% said Israel’s actions were not justified at all.
This drop cuts across party lines but is far larger among Democrats and independents.
“I never wrote a picture in my life. I don’t draw pictures of women. It’s not my language. It’s not my words.”
— President Trump, quoted by Politico, denying he wrote an illustrated letter to Jeffrey Epstein, despite his his well-documented use of doodles.
ABC News reports the earlier “phase one” disclosure of the Epstein files contained a little-noticed “three-page catalog of evidence” that “offers a roadmap to the remaining trove of records that President Donald Trump’s administration has declined to release, including logs of who potentially visited Epstein’s private island and the records of a wiretap of Ghislaine Maxwell’s phone.”
“President Donald Trump said Thursday he would sue the Wall Street Journal and its owner over a new bombshell report about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to begin the process of unsealing grand jury testimony in the disgraced financier’s criminal case,” Politico reports.
“Trump said he had personally warned the Journal’s owner, Rupert Murdoch, and its editor in chief, Emma Tucker, that the letter was ‘fake’ before the report was published, calling the story ‘false, malicious, and defamatory.’”
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.