Political Wire

Members should sign in for the full experience.

California Democrats Appear Ready to Follow Newsom

August 4, 2025 at 1:13 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“California’s Democratic legislative leaders are not ready to talk publicly about Gov. Gavin Newsom’s push to have lawmakers redraw the state’s congressional maps to try to send more Democrats to the U.S. House of Representatives, but behind closed doors they appear ready to follow his lead,” KCRA reports.

“Newsom is eyeing a special election in November of this year to ask voters to temporarily restore the power to draw those maps back to the California legislature for the first time in two decades.”

Abbott’s Options to Force Redistricting Are Limited

August 4, 2025 at 1:04 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott had a message for the dozens of Democratic legislators who fled the state to derail a mega-partisan gerrymander: “This truancy ends now,” Politico reports.

“But Abbott’s options to compel those Democrats — whose departure to Illinois and other states is preventing the state Legislature from conducting any business — to return and vote are more constrained and legally uncertain than he let on. And they may take significant time to resolve in court.”

“Abbott and other Texas Republicans face a hard deadline as they are preparing to adopt maps that could net the GOP five seats in the U.S. House, potentially cementing the party’s majority in Congress. Maps need to be completed before the end of the year so that election officials can prepare for the state’s March 3 primaries.”

Marjorie Taylor Greene Threatens to Leave the GOP

August 4, 2025 at 12:30 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) told the Daily Mail that she feels that the Republican party has lost touch with its base, and suggested she may abandon the party entirely.

Said Greene: “I don’t know if the Republican party is leaving me, or if I’m kind of not relating to Republican party as much any more. I don’t know which one it is.”

Trump Rages During Elizabeth Warren’s Interview

August 4, 2025 at 12:26 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President Trump reacted furiously to Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-MA) interview on CNBC, firing off a series of posts on his Truth Social account calling her “Pocahontas.”

Said Trump: “Elizabeth Warren is a LOSER! She lies about everything, including the fact that she is an Indian. She’s NOT. She’s no Pocahontas!!! Ask Pocahontas the real questions, CNBC!!!”

Georgia GOP Braces for Nasty Senate Primary

August 4, 2025 at 12:12 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Republicans are headed for a bruising Senate primary in Georgia, their best chance to flip a seat in next year’s midterms.

Former Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley (R) is trading the sidelines for the campaign trail in a bid to unseat Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA).

Join now to continue reading.

Members get exclusive analysis, bonus features and no advertising. Learn more.

If you’re already a member, sign in to your account.

A Deeply Disturbing Signal from the Supreme Court

August 4, 2025 at 12:05 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Rick Hasen: “Reading the tea leaves from cryptic Supreme Court orders can be perilous business because the justices are not bound by the questions they ask at oral argument, the offhand comments they make at a judicial conference, or even their monumental ‘shadow docket’ rulings on emergency petitions that have become all too common.”

“But a technical briefing order in a long pending case out of Louisiana, posted on the court’s website after 5 p.m. on a Friday in August, was ominous. The order was likely intended to obscure that SCOTUS is ready to consider striking down the last remaining pillar of the Voting Rights Act, known as Section 2.”

“Such a monumental ruling, likely not coming until June 2026, would change the nature of congressional, state, and local elections all across the country, and likely stir major civil rights protests as the midterm election season heats up.”

Behind Trump’s Efforts to Control Information

August 4, 2025 at 12:00 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Peter Baker: “An old rule in Washington holds that you are entitled to your own opinions but you are not entitled to your own facts. President Trump seems determined to prove that wrong.”

“Don’t like an intelligence report that contradicts your view? Go after the analysts. Don’t like cost estimates for your tax plan? Invent your own. Don’t like a predecessor’s climate policies? Scrub government websites of underlying data. Don’t like a museum exhibit that cites your impeachments? Delete any mention of them.”

“Mr. Trump’s war on facts reached new heights on Friday when he angrily fired the Labor Department official in charge of compiling statistics on employment in America because he did not like the latest jobs report showing that the economy isn’t doing as well as he claims it is. Mr. Trump declared that her numbers were ‘phony.’ His proof? It was ‘my opinion.’ And the story he told supposedly proving she was politically biased? It had no basis in fact itself.”

Trump Threatens India with Even Higher Tariffs

August 4, 2025 at 11:51 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“President Trump on Monday threatened to further raise tariffs on India over the nation’s purchases of Russian oil, accusing the country of profiteering,” Axios reports.

“Having failed to strike a trade deal with India, after months of saying one was imminent, Trump is now going on the offensive against a long-standing ally.”

Said Trump: “India is not only buying massive amounts of Russian Oil, they are then, for much of the Oil purchased, selling it on the Open Market for big profits. They don’t care how many people in Ukraine are being killed by the Russian War Machine.”

Noem Says ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Is Model for ICE

August 4, 2025 at 11:48 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told CBS News that “Alligator Alcatraz” will serve as a model for state-run migrant detention centers.

Trump Sons Launch Vehicle to Capitalize on U.S. Policy

August 4, 2025 at 11:47 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr are backing a new blank check investment vehicle potentially positioned to capitalize on U.S. policy, marking the latest push into public markets by the president’s family,” the Financial Times reports.

“New America Acquisition I Corp will target a company in the U.S. that plays ‘a meaningful role in revitalizing domestic manufacturing, expanding innovation ecosystems, and strengthening critical supply chains,’ the group said in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday.”

Bonus Quote of the Day

August 4, 2025 at 11:45 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“This is a war. We are at war. And that’s why the gloves are off and I say, bring it on.”

— New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D), speaking about the Republican efforts to redistrict mid-cycle.

Netanyahu Moves to Consolidate Power

August 4, 2025 at 11:42 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government voted unanimously Monday to dismiss his attorney general, Gali Baharav-Miara, the chief prosecutor in his ongoing corruption case, as he faces growing criticism inside Israel and U.S. impatience over his government’s management of the war in Gaza,” the Washington Post reports.

“The vote to remove Baharav-Miara, a frequent challenger of the government’s policies, marks one of the most significant steps in Netanyahu’s years-long effort to remake the country’s judiciary. It is also expected to lead to a confrontation between the elected government and Israel’s Supreme Court, which will review and rule on the legality of Baharav-Miara’s removal.”

Will Big Money Lose Again?

August 4, 2025 at 11:30 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

New York Times: “It has been six weeks since New York City’s Democratic primary remade the political landscape, and that’s one of the many questions hanging over the mayor’s race with just over 90 days left. The answer could make permanent the power shifts in the city’s Democratic politics that worry the established order — and could rewrite the playbooks for candidates.”

“For now, real estate executives and financiers are forming super PACs to try to defeat Zohran Mamdani, who won the primary with a far less costly campaign than their preferred candidate, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is running on a third-party line in the general election.”

Said Grace Rauh, the executive director of Citizens Union: “The long-held idea in politics that the candidates with the most money win is no longer an assured position. That is part of the reason why many wealthy donors and interests who are looking at this race, in New York and perhaps beyond, are responding in a bit of a state of panic.”

It’s Not Just Eggs

August 4, 2025 at 11:01 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

A new AP-NORC poll finds “the vast majority of U.S. adults are at least somewhat stressed about the cost of groceries.”

“Only 14% say it’s not a source of stress, underscoring the pervasive anxiety most Americans continue to feel about the cost of everyday essentials.”

Funding Chaos Awaits Congress

August 4, 2025 at 11:00 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“When the House and Senate return from their month-long August recess, lawmakers will have just four weeks to avert a government shutdown — and some kind of kick-the-can funding patch is all but guaranteed,” Politico reports.

“Before the Senate adjourned Saturday evening, the chamber passed the first bipartisan spending package of the year. But on the other side of the Capitol, House Republicans have yet to welcome government funding negotiations with Democrats, after spending the summer stiff-arming them by advancing bills with steep cuts and conservative mandates.”

“The mood on Capitol Hill already wasn’t ripe for a major bipartisan breakthrough this fall on government funding, given the Republican capitulation to President Donald Trump’s moves to undercut billions of dollars Congress has already approved. Now fiscal conservatives say House GOP leaders promised them no funding will be increased, while dozens of Republicans are demanding earmarks and Democrats are weighing ultimatums like re-upping Obamacare funding as a condition of passing legislation in September to keep federal operations afloat.”

Meanwhile, Punchbowl News reports Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries have written to their Republican counterparts requesting a “Big Four meeting,” as the September government funding deadline looms.

Rick Perry Backs John Cornyn

August 4, 2025 at 10:56 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) endorsed Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate.

The War Against Reality

August 4, 2025 at 10:55 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Derek Thompson: “Job growth isn’t the only inconvenient statistic that the Trump administration has tried to suppress in its first seven months.”

“In April, the Trump administration dismissed hundreds of experts who had been putting together the National Climate Assessment, an official report on climate change that is required by Congress. This report isn’t just bathroom reading material for folks who care about sea levels. State and local governments use it to allocate funds toward possible extreme weather events. The insurance industry relies on the assessment to assess risk from extreme weather events for reinsurance coverage. But since the administration is busy waging ideological warfare against any idea that seems too progressive, climate change reports got swept up in the mass cancellation of inconvenient data.”

“Then in June, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired all 17 members of the advisory committee on immunization to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention…

“Across government, Trump administration is commandeering independent agencies to turn them into mouthpieces for pro-Trump narratives, across climate, health, and the economy. The White House is trying to program reality as if it were reality TV.”

“But reality exists, whether or not you choose to measure it.”

Exchange of the Day

August 4, 2025 at 10:51 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Texas state Rep. Gene Wu (D) spoke to John Berman on CNN about Gov. Greg Abbott’s threats of removing Democrats from office.

WU: I would say, you know what, today is a great day to end the corruption of Greg Abbott. This has gone on far too long. The public has been enraged about this. How politicians continue to tell the public pretty words, but never actually do what they say they would do. This is Governor Abbott being upset about that because he’s been caught doing exactly that. And Governor Abbott, frankly, he doesn’t know how to read attorney generals opinions because he used to be attorney general. And, frankly, Democrats say, come and take it.

BERMAN: Come and take it. You think — do you think he could be successful taking your seats away?

WU: No. It’s all bluster. Sound and fury signifying nothing.