Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) said that she spoke to Susan Monarez on Wednesday evening about her removal from the CDC, calling her “a highly capable scientist who brought a wealth of experience to the agency,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Collins said she was “alarmed that she has been fired after only three weeks on the job” as well as by the departures of the other top officials.
“Former Major League Baseball player Mark Teixeira launched his campaign for Texas’ 21st Congressional District on Thursday, becoming one of the first Republicans to declare for the Central Texas district since the incumbent, Rep. Chip Roy, announced he would give up the seat to run for attorney general,” the Texas Tribune reports.
Playbook: “Trump’s second term has thus far been something of an eight-month mission to test out the limits of his power — one in which he has ripped through the norms that have hemmed in his presidency. In response, Trump’s actions as president are testing another limit: the willingness of a former president to stay out of the political fray.”
“Former President Barack Obama has, in recent days, reengaged in the political moment in ways broadly uncommon for a former Oval Office occupant.”
“The Pentagon is restoring a portrait of Gen. Robert E. Lee, which includes a slave guiding the Confederate general’s horse in the background, to the West Point library three years after a congressionally mandated commission ordered it removed,” the New York Times reports.
Vice President JD Vance told USA Today that he was prepared to take over “if, God forbid,” President Trump dies or is otherwise incapacitated.
“Senate Democrats are trying to recruit Mary Peltola, the one candidate they think can make next year’s race in Alaska competitive. But the former congresswoman hasn’t said ‘yes’ — yet — in part because she hasn’t ruled out a different statewide run,” NOTUS reports.
“With high name recognition, the proven political chops to build a winning coalition in Alaska and a national fundraising machine behind her, the former lawmaker is the Democratic Party’s undisputed favorite candidate to run for governor, Senate or House.”
“CVS, the country’s largest pharmacy chain, is currently not offering Covid vaccines in 16 states, including Florida, New York and Pennsylvania, even to people who meet newly restricted criteria from the Food and Drug Administration,” the New York Times reports.
“Thailand’s Constitutional Court on Friday removed Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra citing serious ethical breaches related to a phone call this summer with the former strongman of neighboring Cambodia,” the New York Times reports.
“The court had already suspended Paetongtarn last month after a group of senators lodged a complaint with the court over her conversation with Hun Sen, Cambodia’s longtime leader and the father of the country’s former prime minister. During that call to discuss an escalating border dispute between the two countries, Paetongtarn appeared submissive, referring to Hun Sen as ‘uncle’ and to Thailand’s powerful military as the ‘opposing side.’”
“Hun Sen later released a recording of the call, setting off a political crisis in Thailand just as the border dispute turned into a full-blown military confrontation.”
“The task of avoiding a government shutdown is already dominating Congress’ imminent return next week — and the path forward is looking rocky,” Semafor reports.
“President Trump expanded his wide-reaching effort to strip union protections from federal employees on Thursday, signing an executive order that commanded roughly half a dozen government agencies to end their collective bargaining agreements with unions representing their employees,” the New York Times reports.
“Is Gov. Gavin Newsom’s new MAGA-inspired merchandise a big hit, a bad joke, or some combination thereof?,” the New York Times reports.
“On sale at Mr. Newsom’s ‘Patriot Shop,’ unveiled on Sunday, the merchandise generated about $300,000 in sales on its first day, according to the governor’s team, with healthy demand for items like a T-shirt depicting the governor as ‘the chosen one’ — touched by a haloed Hulk Hogan — and a familiar red hat reading ‘Newsom was right about everything!’”
“Those products are both legitimate campaign swag — with proceeds going to support a California ballot measure meant to tip congressional districts toward Democrats — and an elaborate parody, reflecting the look of President Trump’s own merchandise, which has come to dominate the nation’s political iconography over the last decade.”
The Guardian: Can Democrats win by trolling Trump?
“As President Trump sat with top donors at his New Jersey golf club this month, he made a private admission: He believed the coronavirus vaccine was one of the biggest accomplishments of his presidency, but he couldn’t bask in it,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Trump told donors—who were paying $1 million to be there—that he wished he could talk more about Operation Warp Speed, the government program he initiated that helped expedite the development of the vaccine…”
“Trump’s private comments illuminate the fraught politics around vaccines that the White House is confronting, which reached a boiling point Wednesday after the administration fired the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other top officials quit their jobs in the midst of disagreements with Health and Human Services Secretary Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over vaccine policy.”
New York Times: “Both parties appear to be weighing gatherings that would gin up excitement for candidates in 2026 — and give a major platform for ambitious politicians hoping to lead the parties in 2028.”
“The nation’s top public health agency was left reeling and leaderless as the White House works to expel its handpicked director from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and three senior officials were escorted from its headquarters on Thursday,” the AP reports.
“The turmoil triggered rare bipartisan alarm as President Donald Trump’s health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., tries to advance anti-vaccine policies that are contradicted by decades of scientific research.”
“The chaos comes weeks before a key advisory committee, which Kennedy has reshaped with vaccine skeptics, is expected to meet to issue new recommendations on immunizations.”
The Guardian: CDC officials who quit in protest lead call to “get politics out of public health.”
Axios: How RFK Jr. could exploit the CDC’s power vacuum.
Virginia gubernatorial nominee Winsome Earle-Sears (R) expressed strong opposition to a series of LGBTQ+ rights in a candidate questionnaire completed when she unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2004, the Virginia Mercury reports.
She responded “yes” to questions about whether she would vote to block same-sex couples from adopting children and oppose workplace protections for gay people, and she indicated that she believed homosexuality is an “immoral lifestyle choice.”
Republican legislative leaders say they’ll redraw Utah’s congressional maps, as a judge ordered earlier this week, while maintaining they will challenge the “misguided” ruling that they say “unconstitutionally” ties their hands, the Salt Lake Tribune reports.
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.
